When he first became chief minister of Gujarat in 1995, Keshubhai Patel would get worked up at the slightest provocation. Every time Shankersinh Vaghela alleged that his son-in-law Mayur Desai had become an extra-constitutional power centre, Patel would go to great lengths to deny the charge. But in his second avatar as chief minister, Patel simply doesn't bother. During the session of the State assembly, Leader of the Opposition Amarsinh Chaudhary alleged that ``the son and the son-in-law have become decision-makers''. But the CM didn't retalliate. Chaudhary repeated the charge but, again, Patel did not respond. The third time, Chaudhary said:``Even the Chief Secretary took files to the son and the son-in-law.''

Again, Patel sat Sphinx-like. Next, Congress chief whip Naresh Rawal named the son and son-in-law. This time, Patel did get up, but asked Rawal not to mention his family. Later, when reporters asked about the charge, Patel simply dismissed it: ``It is baseless.''

ProudFather

Very much like the father he played in Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Kein, K. D. Chandran is a man with definite ideas on how present-day youngsters should behave and work. Chandran is proud of his daughter, dancer-actress Sudha Chandran, and would like her to continue and do as much as she can and more for the cause of the disabled. And his favourite amongst the current actors for the discipline and helpful attitude, Aamir Khan. But his all-time favourite remains Anil Kapoor.

Munde Mantra

A True blue-blooded BJP-man can hardly eschew the path of yagnas and mantras, can he? Maharashtra's Gopinath Munde, the party's only charismatic State leader and a serious aspirant for the chief minister's chair showed his religious inclination a few days ago. Enjoying his last few days as deputy CM and home minister, Munde invited Mumbai's best-known astrologer-pundit-author-entrepreneur and old-time friend Jayantrao Salgaonkar to his chamber ostensibly for an official discussion aboutGanesh festival. Officialese over, Munde turned over his personal fears and doubts for the other-wordly check. Would he become the chief minister? Would he win his seat? Salgaonkar, a friend to prominent politicians, suggested a yagna to appease the stars. Everything went into quick drive after that -- Munde spoke to his wife, cancelled or kept all appointments on hold till later that night and drove home. Salgaonkar followed in his Mercedes. Hours later, the Munde household was satisfied that they had done everything possible to keep the Gods happy and Munde went back to his usual blustering self.

Mixing Business With Pleasure

The long drawn-out election means that some politicians snatch a break between polling and results. As Sharad Pawar did last week. The excruciating slog for Maharashtra over, he moved on to other states to campaign for his Nationalist Congress Party colleagues. That done, Pawar took off to Goa for a vacation. But politicians rarely take a complete vacation. Pawar'spresence among the sands of Goa set the politicos there into a tizzy.

Requests poured in for meetings, what with former union minister Ramakant Khalap having joined the NCP recently. As it turned out, his Goa sojourn of four days turned out to be a pleasure-cum-business one. He is not complaining, though no one will tell if he made time for the typical Goan pleasures or not.

Nothing Official About It

The last time around, when India and Pakistan were reported to be negotiating a secret deal on Kashmir, a key player was a journalist, R. K. Mishra, Chairman of the Observer group of newspapers, owned by the Ambanis of Reliance. As part of the `back-channel' diplomacy, Mishra even travelled to Lahore during the height of the Kargil crisis, to pow-wow with the Pakistanis, including former foreign secretary Niaz Naik. Guess what? Naik, who first spilt the beans on the secret deal, was in the Capital just a few days ago and was captured (photographically) with yet another Reliancehigh-flyer -- George Thomas, Reliance's President (Corporate Affairs). Thomas, for his part, denies any secret rendezvous, saying that he was just lunching with some colleagues at the India Habitat Centre and was looking at Naik curiously as they both left the centre, wondering who he was. Curious coincidence?

Darshan Desai in Ahmedabad, Shaan Chavan and Shehnaz Husein in Pune, Smruti Koppikar in Mumbai, Sunil Jain in New Delhi