When Captain’s residence turned into a war zone

CHANDIGARH: The Mohali office of party strategist Prashant Kishor was not less than a war room of the Congress during Punjab elections.

But as the party scripted a stunning victory in Punjab on Saturday, its poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his team, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), were missing from action.

Kishor was in New Delhi and his team was watching the results from Lucknow, where it has stationed itself after the elections ended.

As poll results started pouring in today, the Congress seemed invincible from the beginning itself.

Even though the Congress Bhawan in Chandigarh was silent, right after 11 am, the Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence here became the centre of action.

The first to signal a change of guard was the entourage of Punjab officers including KBS Sidhu, Sanjiv Gupta, SK Sharma and Ashok Gupta.

It being Amarinder’s 75th birthday, well-wishers came with bouquets and cakes.

But Amarinder did not taking any chances this time and appeared only around 12 pm after a landslide victory seemed undisputed.

However, what followed was complete mayhem. As news channels made a beeline to get the best ‘bite’, there was pushing and shoving. Heavy security deployed at his residence struggled to tackle the crowd.

Amarinder was hardly audible in the melee. He even mocked the media, reminding them it was ‘politicians who shout’. Many of us made peace with just the photo-op -- Amarinder addressing the media with newlywed grandson Nirvan and his wife, Mriganika, who offered him the victory ladoo.

Some more enterprising ones like us were able to make way to Amarinder’s residence but had to beat a hasty retreat as the staircase leading to his room on the first floor saw a stampede like situation and a domestic help was seen pleading surging masses to leave the wooden railing lest it came off.

The media team had vanished and all media persons who chose to stay back, to get ‘meatier’ quote and picture of Amarinder, saw him leaving for Patiala at 3pm for a victory procession.

Some aggrieved media persons could not help but compare the situation to last elections when Congress had made better arrangements for them.

Perhaps, one is more gracious in defeat than victory!