Sonia smells BJP foul play in alliance broth

The lunch itself — held on the eve of her departure for UP, Orissa and West Bengal on the first leg of a long election campaign — was part of the Congress’s somewhat belated attempt to match the BJP’s media management skills. In fact, the Congress president’s lunch clashed with BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu’s ‘‘brunch’’.

Making up for her normal lack of accessibility, Sonia Gandhi made it a point to spend a few minutes at each of the dozen-odd tables where she answered questions, made quips and — on occasion — ignored uncomfortable queries.

For the most part, she repeated what she and her colleagues have been harping on for the last few weeks — that there was no ‘‘feel-good’’ factor, that alliances in Tamil Nadu and Bihar were on course, that the Kerala problem was ‘‘slowly coming to an end’’, and that Rahul and Priyanka’s joining politics was ‘‘their choice ..ask them’’.

But the FAQ of the day was on the Congress prospects in UP. In response to a journalist’s discourse on the Congress’s glorious history in UP and the need to revive it, Sonia remarked that ‘‘caste-polarisation’’ had changed the party’s fortunes over the years and it would be foolish not to recognise it.

Regarding negotiations with the BSP, she said: ‘‘It is taking a little time, but we are confident that it will work out.’’ But her confidence was based more on hope than reality was underlined when she added: ‘‘Zindagi mein asha nahin to zindagi kya hain.’’

It was in the context of tying up with the BSP that Sonia charged that efforts were on to sabotage the secular coalition. ‘‘Some people are working very hard to prevent parties from working with us. But I am sure they will not be successful.’’

Her other significant comment — made with considerable panache — came in response to a question on the BJP’s campaign against the Congress’s politics of ‘‘dynasty’’. Describing the charge as ‘‘a big joke’’, she said: ‘‘How can they point fingers at us? The whole India is full of dynasties. You take the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra, National Conference in J-K, Chautala in Haryana.’’

She also took a swipe at the BJP’s over-dependence on the Vajpayee factor, and said as she was walking from a table — ‘‘What do they have besides Vajpayee?’’