For the Congress, news of its former Minister Krishna Tirath switching sides could not have come at a more inopportune moment. The party’s campaign coordinator — a Congress euphemism for chief ministerial candidate — for Delhi elections, Ajay Maken, was in the midst of flaunting a detailed booklet on U-turns made by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal when an impatient television reporter cut him short mid-sentence to ask for a reaction on Ms. Tirath meeting BJP president Amit Shah.
Mr. Maken sought to appear outwardly unfazed and said “I don’t know; we are hearing this from you.”
He tried to go on with the agenda of the day but quickly realised the futility of it as the journalists had already lost interest in Mr. Kejriwal’s U-turns and was only interested in the breaking story of the moment.
Given how rare it is for the Congress to get live coverage these days, some party leaders could not help wonder if the BJP had scheduled Ms. Tirath’s meeting with Mr. Shah in a manner to starve the party of whatever little airtime it was getting. In fact, this was one of the few Congress press conferences that drew a full house since the party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections.
Gathering his wits, Mr. Maken sought to turn the tables on the BJP by taking a dig at it for “importing leaders” from all over the political spectrum; that too, people who “till the day before moving into the fold were criticising the party.” He cited the names of Kiran Bedi, Vinod Kumar Binny and Shazia Ilmi while maintaining ignorance on Ms. Tirath.
“This clearly shows the dearth of leaders with administrative skills in the BJP; something that is in abundance in the Congress,” Mr. Maken said; adding that it was also an insult to those who have been with the BJP for years. “When the BJP’s top leadership is showing lack of faith in its own MLAs, how can they expect the people of Delhi to have faith in them?”
By evening, the party’s central leadership had its spin on Ms. Tirath ready and all leaders flagged the fact that she had lost her deposit in the Lok Sabha elections and so her candidature was not considered for the Patel Nagar constituency she was keen to contest. And, with the Congress losing State after State, there was no sop the party could have offered her; no Rajya Sabha seat, no chairpersonship... nothing as she joined the trail of leaders – including Union Rural Development Minister Birender Singh and Union Minister of State Rao Inderjit – switching to greener pastures.
