Delhi confidential: Batting For Sreesanth

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader K V Thomas is lobbying hard for the BCCI to lift its ban on S Sreesanth so he can try and return to the Indian cricket team. Sreesanth is from Kochi and Thomas is the local MP. While the BCCI has said the life ban on Sreesanth will stay despite the court relief, Thomas is busy meeting politicians associated with cricket. He has met Sharad Pawar and spoken to BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and IPL chairman and fellow Congress MP Rajiv Shukla over the phone. He also plans to meet Jyotiraditya Scindia and Arun Jaitley on Thursday or Friday to discuss the issue.

Waiting For A Picture
With a room in Parliament after six years, Trinamool Congress MPs are busy doing it up. The red sofas, for example, have been replaced with blue ones. Red is, of course, the colour of choice of the Left. The matter of getting party chief Mamata Banerjee’s picture for the room is still pending. Requests to Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP, artist Jogen Chowdhury, for a sketch of Mamata done by him have been turned down. Chowdhury reasons that the sketch has been signed by Banerjee and is, hence, a treasured possession.

Hard At Work
Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo is known to publicly declare that his ministry works round-the-clock. The minister, who shuttles between his constituency in West Bengal, the ministry in Delhi and his career as a Bollywood playback singer in Mumbai, recently added with a chuckle, “Given my background (in Bollywood), I go to bed at 4 am and Venkaiahji (Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu) wakes up at 4 am.”

A Picked pocket
A former minister from Assam had a bad experience when he came to pay tribute to former President A P J Abdul Kalam at his 10, Rajaji Marg residence. As he stood in queue to pay tribute, somebody picked his pocket. Not only his wallet, his wife’s mobile phone, which he was carrying, was also stolen. According to him, other people present at the venue were heard complaining about the same thing, and some even approached the police.