Saturday’s catch

DIDI made a mega killing in the run-up to the polls. So did P.A. Sangma when his faction of the NCP merged with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress less than a week after the EC recognised the Sharad Pawar group as the NCP. The new entity, christened National Trinamool Congress, will be headed by Mamata and will retain the symbol of flower with grass. Sangma said: ‘‘There is no difference of opinion between me and her (Mamata) on any issue’’

BJP got a shot in the arm when former Union minister V.C. Shukla merged his fledgling Rashtriya Janatantrik Dal with it and admitted openly that the Emergency, in which he was a prominent player, was a ‘‘mistake’’. The saffron party also netted another significant catch when former AICC member and son of former J-K chief minister Rafiq Sadiq joined it describing the Congress-PDP government in the state as ‘‘anti-people and anti-democratic’’. Welcoming both into the party, party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu said the exodus of ‘‘traditional Congressmen’’ and members of the Nehru-Gandhi family into the BJP shows that they have lost faith in the Congress leadership