Once a grand plan, now a bitter tussle
The Hindu
Prashant Kishor first wanted to make a plan with Rahul Gandhi, but now wants one without him
After months of negotiations at several levels, a grand plan for the entry of election strategist Prashant Kishor into the Congress has collapsed into bitterness between the two, and outbursts on Thursday. Until late August, the Congress was trying to fit him into its organisational structure, but his demands were found to be unworkable and the idea was abandoned, according to a senior party functionary.
Mr. Kishor, who advises TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is coordinating her expansion drive outside West Bengal that is. “Sushmita Dev left the Congress for the TMC when we were still in talks... It is now very clear what his plans were... Good that we did not fall for that,” a senior Congress functionary told The Hindu.
Mr. Kishor did not respond to The Hindu’s request for an interview for this story.

The municipal bus stand auditorium in Malappuram was packed. But nobody quite knew what to expect. After all, a new event was making its debut at the State School Arts Festival. The moment V.G. Harikrishnan started his rendition of Pyar bhare do sharmile nain..., everyone was convinced that Ghazal was here to stay. The student from GVHSS, Atholi (Kozhikode), was applauded loudly for his rendering of the timeless ghazal sung originally by Mehdi Hassan.

For the last few weeks, several wards in Madurai city have been getting piped drinking water through a new drinking water scheme. The sweetness of the generously supplied water has led to loss of business to several suppliers of canned drinking water in the city. But, not many know that the water supplied to the houses in Madurai is directly drawn from Lower Dam of Mullaperiyar Dam in Idukki district of Kerala.











