Central Hall Tales: AIADMK government is safe for the time being

The AIADMK Government is safe for time being. Reason being Vidyasagar Rao, who is now discharging the duties of Tamil Nadu governor, after consultations in New Delhi has decided to keep the issue of 22 MLAs withdrawal to the Edapaddi Palaniswami government in abeyance.

I say this because Vidyasagar Rao is being replaced by a full-time Governor of Tamil Nadu by the end of  August, according to sources in the Prime Minister Office. Shuffling of governors is about to take place and there are five vacancies in the country.

According to Vidyasagar Rao should not a new Governor of Tamil Nadu take a political view of the withdrawal of 22 MLAs support to Edapati Palaniswami? Why should he unnecessarily get into legal complications. If this is the situation for another a week, till such time, the Edapaddi government is safe in Tamil Nadu.

Observers are of the belief that the merger of EPS and OPS has worked out well.

Vaiko leader of MDMK is keen to merge his party with DMK

Tamil Nadu political drama has been turned into a "merger mania" now. After OPS and EPS merger of two factions of AIADMK, now it is the turn of Vaiko who is presently heading a political outfit MDMK (Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). He is likely to merge with the DMK. Negotiations have since begun according to a highly placed DMK source in Chennai.

On Tuesday night  Vaiko suddenly drove to the residence of M Karunanidhi and paid his respects and MK Stalin is believed to have welcomed Vaiko. This is a new trend in DMK - invite old friends of Karunanidhi to the residence just to cheer up the aged leader who is now 94 years. Vaiko was emotional when he touched the feet of Karunanidhi.

“I spent 25 years with him  in my 50 years of public life. I have now become matured. I have new plans,” said Vaiko. Inferences are now being drawn that Vaiko is likely to end his MDMK by merging with DMK. Say in a month or two.

Smriti Irani is taking language classes in Amethi

The Union Minister is fast learning the dialect of Hindi spoken in Amethi down to the  accent and the local diction. It is suspected that Smriti Irani is likely to camp in Amethi at least three days a month in future. She will be the BJP candidate for Amethi Parliamentary constituency.

Did you know? Smriti Irani speaks many languages. Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi and Punjabi, apart from Hindi and English. She always speaks to CPM West Bengal MPs in chaste Bengali.

Punjabi and Marathi she learnt in New Delhi and in Mumbai. In the central Hall of Parliament, she would show her expertise in all the languages by talking to each of the state MPs in their own language. Earlier P V Narasimha Rao, the  former Prime Minister used to speak, read write in six languages. So does Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Due to his RSS siksha, Atalji was very fluent in Marathi.

R Rajagopalan is a senior correspondent in New Delhi. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect those of Asianet Newsable