Delhi Confidential: Reaching Out

Keeping Issue Alive

THE VIOLENT protests over the Agnipath scheme for recruiting soldiers across the three services may have died down, giving way to the Maharashtra political crisis to dominate the news cycle, but the Congress is trying hard to keep the issue alive. On Sunday, the Congress sent a battery of its leaders to hold press conferences in state capitals. In all 20 of its leaders addressed the media in 20 cities. Among them were Shaktisinh Gohil in Delhi, Deepender Hooda in Jaipur, Alka Lamba in Ahmedabad, Supriya Shrinate in Mumbai, M M Pallam Raju in Benguluru, Gaurav Gogoi in Chennai, Pawan Khera in Kolkata, Kanhaiya Kumar in Patna and Ajay Maken in Lucknow.

Poor Show

THE TRINAMOOL Congress’s dismal performance in the bypolls to four Tripura assembly constituencies, with all its candidates losing their security deposit, is likely to force an organisational rejig. The party was hoping to grow in Tripura, building on its hegemonic presence in West Bengal. But as the party analyses the factors behind Sunday’s defeat, its over-reliance on West Bengal-based leaders and celebrities in trying to make inroads in the Northeastern state has been identified as one of the factors that went against it. The local party leaders also rue the absence of a strong local face with mass appeal in its local unit.