Jitin Prasada gives Congress the jitters

On a day when the Congress was see-sawing between disappointment and hope owing to the BSY diaries on one hand and Sam Pitroda's comment on Balakot on the other, the party managed a close shave by stopping Uttar Pradesh leader Jitin Prasada from walking over to the BJP.

It did not help that, earlier in the day, Prasada's reaction was a cryptic one. "There should be some basis for such a question. Why should I answer a hypothetical question," he told reporters.

Congress communication chief Randeep Singh Surjewala rubbished the news. "Jitin bhai and I go back a long way. So, even on a personal capacity, I can say and I do never use such words but I think it is bu*****t," he said.

Sources in the party, however, said that Prasada was in talks with the BJP, after the Congress announced him as the candidate from the Dhaurahra seat and then moved him to the Lucknow seat. With the BJP fielding home minister Rajnath Singh, Prasad is unsure that he will win the seat, currently held by BJP MP Rekha Verma. Claimants within the BSP-SP alliance for the seat include Jaya Prada.

It was eventually the intervention of party president Rahul Gandhi that stopped the two-time Lok Sabha MP from switching over to the BJP.