If Sonia Gandhi wants to find out what’s wrong with her party, she should walk the 2 km distance from Punjab Bhawan to Kapurthala House in the heart of New Delhi.Because her Punjab regiment got it all wrong when she, after the Congress rout in the Assembly polls, told them: ‘‘pull up your socks’’ and close the gap ahead of next year’s Big Fight.Divided over Captain Amarinder Singh’s leadership, Congress men and women have pitched rival camps in Delhi to pose a new challenge to Sonia. Such is the spectacle that you can’t blame onlookers when they say it’s time she pulled up her socks.Until yesterday, Kapurthala House was the beehive of activity: all the Captain’s men were there to record the ‘‘overwhelming support’’ for him. At last count, 38 MLAs, some flown in from Punjab, were ‘‘presented’’ before the three AICC leaders tasked to defuse the crisis.But today was another day, another place. In Punjab Bhawan, the Captain’s rival, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, was playing her best knock many seasons. Before the same committee, Bhattal ‘‘paraded’’ her 33 MLAs, 16 of them ministers in the Amarinder government.If you were to tally the names of the two camps, you would probably bracket some in the category of fence-sitters. At least five stood out. In Amarinder’s camp yesterday, with Bhattal today. Ready to swing either way, depending on the conditions.In the Punjab Bhawan dining hall, even the butter chicken aroma couldn’t shut out the stench of political intrigue. It’s packed with Bhattal men, all flashing hurriedly made name-tags. The idea is to help the AICC do a head-count.Amarinder’s Minister for Industry and Civil Aviation Hansraj Joshan tells you: ‘‘The Chief Minister never even spoke to me. How can he take my support for granted? I am an old Congressman. But never before has a CM not spoken to the MLAs in the middle of a crisis.’’Then there’s R S Puri, Minister for Urban Development and Housing: ‘‘I never went to Kapurthala House (Amarinder’s camp in Delhi). How can I?’’ If you ask him why did matters precipitate so soon after the Assembly rout, this is what you get to hear: ‘‘I worked for the Congress for 40 years and then someone is imposed on you. We would not mind if he had been a little sympathetic towards us and our constituencies. It’s in the Congress poll interest.’’Listen to Mohinder Rinwa, parliamentary secretary: ‘‘The CM wakes up at 10.30 am, reaches office at 11.30 am while his three most-trusted lieutenants take all phone calls. When we go to him, his 15 OSDs (officers on special duty) check whether the CM needs to meet us. Usually, they tell us, we are not needed.’’As dessert bowls do the rounds, Punjab PCC vice-president M M Cheema says, ‘‘Not even his loyalists are happy with the CM. We all feel that the CM is trapped in the web of his advisors.’’And Bhattal, savouring every moment, says, ‘‘We have left everything to the party high command. We just want a government which is more answerable, a CM who is more accessible. Is that too much to ask? We told (AICC general secretary) Mohsina Kidwai this and, if we get a chance, we will tell Sonia Gandhi too.’’In the other camp, a handful of Amarinder loyalists, were being ‘‘worked on’’ in Delhi’s five-star hotels. Cellphones switched off and in rooms booked under other names, these men mean a lot to the CM who’s sticking to his chair.A CM loyalist tells you there’s enough room for peace: ‘‘We are ready for cabinet expansion. Four Rajya Sabha seats too get vacant next year. Clearly, there is a lot of scope for compromise.’’ It’s now upto the AICC, tasked by Sonia, to close this in-house gap.
