Two high-profile inductions into the Congress—those of Shatrughan Sinha in Bihar and Suresh Chandel in Himachal—faced a spanner from the RJD and Himachal Congress unit, respectively.
These were deferred at the last minute on Thursday.
Congress media department was left red-faced after it sent out messages about the events—the joining of Sinha in the presence of AICC in charge Bihar Shakti Sinh Gohil and that of Chandel in the presence of AICC in charge Himachal Rajni Patil—only to cut a sorry figure later.
Both press conferences were deferred with no sign of either Gohil or Patil. No reasons were given.
Tribune enquiries revealed that the joining of former three-time BJP MP from Hamirpur Chandel got stuck in ticket woes at the last
moment with former Himachal Congress chief Sukhwinder Sukhu throwing his hat in the ring from Hamirpur.
Patil, Chandel and Sukhu are currently at Rahul Gandhi’s place trying to resolve the matter.
Shatrughan Sinha’s joining plan was scheduled for 11.30 am but was deferred after fresh tension between the Congress and the RJD in Bihar.
Sinha wanted RJD leaders to attend his joining in Delhi as he would have been declared the joint grand alliance candidate from Patna against Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP.
However, a last-minute spanner by the RJD messed things up as the RJD suddenly announced a candidate from Darbhanga, a seat it had last week set aside for the Congress, which is to field former BJP MP Kirti Azad from there. Darbhanga is one of the nine seats the RJD had left for the Congress during the recently announced Bihar Mahagathbandhan.
On Thursday, the RJD all of a sudden announced a candidate from the seat upsetting the Congress which originally wanted 11 seats from the Lalu Prasad-led outfit.
As pulls and pressures escalated between the Congress and the RJD, Shatrughan met Rahul and said, “I will soon join the Congress. What happened today wasn’t what I intended. I will contest from Patna.”
Later, it was said that Sinha would join the party on April 6.