Glasshouse

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Among the appointments in the new Uttar Pradesh BJP state executive, the one that drew the most attention was that of Neeraj Singh, younger son of defence minister Rajnath Singh. The 44-year-old was named state vice-president in the 46-member committee, marking his first major organisational role. Until now, he has not even held a significant district-level post in the party, hence the raised eyebrows. Neeraj is the third member—elder brother, Pankaj Singh, is the party MLA from Noida—from the family to enter active politics. Within the BJP, the University of Leeds graduate has long been seen as Rajnath’s ‘informal representative’, managing links with the party organisation and administration in Lucknow when his father is in Delhi. After the appointment, Neeraj also posted a 24-year-old photograph of his from a 2002 BJP campaign, possibly to nix any talk of nepotism.

NEW DIGS FOR DKS | HOME REMEDIES

Karnataka chief minister D.K. Shivakumar has chosen the historic Kumara Krupa guesthouse in Bengaluru as his official residence, instead of moving into ‘Anugraha’, the designated CM bungalow that many leaders now regard as ‘jinxed’ (after a number of previous occupants suffered political reverses). Renovation work is under way at the 160-year-old, 12-room bungalow on Kumara Krupa Road, once the residence of Mysore diwan K. Seshadri Iyer and the place where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during an extended visit in 1927. PWD officials say the revamp, including a separate approach road and boundary wall, will follow DKS’s vaastu preferences, with work expected to be completed around Dussehra. The Opposition JD(S) has criticised the alteration of a heritage building for personal convenience, though officials insist its character will be preserved.

THE COMEBACK

Former IAS officer Sujata Rout Karthikeyan’s entry into the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is more than a routine induction, say sources, notwithstanding party supremo and ex-CM Naveen Patnaik’s claim that she would be “a simple member”. Sujata is the wife of V.K. Pandian, the former bureaucrat-turned-politician widely blamed by BJD insiders for the party’s 2024 poll debacle. She had taken voluntary retirement in 2025, but now Odisha’s power couple seems to be coming back centre stage in the BJD.

SPEAKER’S BLOCK

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar recently got into a soup with his stumbling Marathi while reading out the obituary reference for the late iconic singer Asha Bhosle. Though the BJP leader and Colaba MLA apologised for the gaffe, it has triggered a hot debate in some quarters: the state government wants taxi and rickshaw drivers to learn Marathi, so shouldn’t elected representatives at least be expected to converse well in the language?

TRUST DEFICIT

Madhya Pradesh urban development minister Kailash Vijayvargiya recently dropped a bomb about the state’s bureaucracy. The BJP leader claimed that over the past two decades when the party was in power in the state (with a brief Congress interlude), he had met several officers who, seeking to curry favour with the regime, made false claims about being “close” to the Sangh. Analysts say the remark, made at a Sangh event in Bhopal, suggests the BJP is still unconvinced about the bureaucracy’s ‘commitment’ to the party’s cause.

—with Ashish Misra, Arkamoy Datta Majumdar, Dhaval S. Kulkarni and Rahul Noronha