Cong workers seethe within

The Congress’s failure to clinch the deal, sources said, reflected the party’s inherent inability to make choices and take risks. Just as in the 1980s when the Congress tried to appease both Hindu communalists and Muslim fundamentalists and came a cropper, the party wanted to keep options open with both the SP and the BSP — and is likely to end up alienating both.

Former UPCC chief Salman Khurshid, a known BSP advocate, pleaded ignorance on what went wrong. ‘‘I really don’t know, I was not really involved (in talks with BSP) except at the beginning. I was only a catalyst not an intermediary.’’

Khurshid said he ‘‘had no idea’’ if the Congress was trying for a deal with the SP. But as in cricket where the match isn’t over till the last ball is bowled, Congressmen believe the deal isn’t dead till campaign begins.