Resentment is brewing within the Congress against the party leadership's decision to promote "migrants", political leaders who have joined from other parties. Newly appointed Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had joined the Congress a few years ago from Deve Gowda's JD(S). Madhusudan Mistry, who is being given the credit for the Congress' victory in Karnataka, has an RSS background. He joined the party ten years ago with Shankarsinh Vaghela. Of the seven spokespersons appointed recently, only Sandeep Dikshit and Shakeel Ahmad are originally Congressmen. P.C. Chacko, the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G spectrum, left the Congress with Sharad Pawar, but returned later. Even Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had joined the Tiwari Congress. P.L. Punia, the chairman of the SC-ST Commission, left the BSP to join the Congress four years ago. Union minister Beni Prasad Verma is originally from Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.

The Congress wants to replace its Uttar Pradesh PCC president Nirmal Khatri with a Brahmin face. Congress leaders have been saying that since Khatri is not in good health, it's time someone else took charge of the state. But the truth is, the party thinks that in a caste-ridden state, Khatris are of no relevance. The party thinks that the Dalits are with the BSP, the OBCs with the Samajwadi Party and the Rajputs will shift to the BJP because of Rajnath Singh. The Muslims are not yet sure which way they will vote. That leaves the Brahmins, who had shifted to the BJP when Atal Behari Vajpayee was leading the party. Now they are rudderless. With both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav wooing Brahmins, the Congress thinks it's time to counter them with a Brahmin PCC chief. The names under consideration are of Pramod Tiwari, Jitin Prasada and K.K. Sharma. But Tiwari, a Digvijay Singh protégé is known to promote factionalism, Prasada is not keen to give up his minister's job and Sharma does not have any stature. Congress is also thinking of appointing a Muslim PCC president.

Mamata Banerjee's party members are unhappy with her for making an outsider, former footballer Prasun Banerjee contest the Howrah Lok Sabha byelection scheduled for 2 June. His opponents, Congress' Shanatan Mukherjee and CPI(M)'s Sridit Bhattacharya both belong to Howrah and are a criminal lawyer and a CPM state committee member, respectively. Prasun Banerjee neither belongs to Howrah nor is a member of the Trinamool Congress. His proximity to a CPI(M) councillor, Tapas Chatterjee is well known. His brother P.K. Banerjee is a CPI(M) member. The Howrah unit, which wanted Didi to give the ticket to a party worker from the area, is unlikely to work for the footballer.

C.P. Joshi was at the airport, all set to fly off to Europe for an international conference when he was asked to return and take charge of Railways last week. It was the second time that he had to cancel a foreign trip. The last time he was given the additional charge of Railways, he had to cancel his impending visit to the United States. He is unhappy that the portfolio is being dumped on him every time a minister resigns, and then being taken away. However, he need not worry. He will continue in the Rail Bhavan as there are no plans to replace him.

Sindhushree Khullar, who was the frontrunner for the post of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has lost the race. The Secretary, Planning Commission was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first choice to become the country's top auditor. The Prime Minister knows her husband, TRAI chief Rahul Khullar, well, as the latter had worked under him when he was Finance Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government. She is also a P. Chidambaram favourite. However, she took almost a nine-year-long leave from service, which went against her. The fact that Subramanian Swamy wants her to be questioned in the 2G spectrum case also did not help her.