Cong eyeing BJD to widen non-NDA bloc?

NEW DELHI: The conversation was personal but the undertone seemed political. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's longish interaction with BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab in Lok Sabha on Monday morning attracted attention as Sonia usually keeps to herself and the Odisha outfit is a political rival that has not minced words in attacking Congress.
As the media gallery and observers in the House noted the conversation, it transpired that Sonia shared a piece of writing by the BJD member's father Harekrushna Mahtab on the occasion of Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday on November 14, 1942.Mahtab senior was a Congress member and twice the chief minister of Odisha. Sonia is understood to have inquired whether Mahtab recognised the handwriting and contents that apparently contained kind words about Nehru and the BJD MP from Cuttack said he did confirm his father's hand.
The Congress chief said she had come across the correspondence in the files relating to Nehru's interactions with various politicians and Mahtab recalled that his father and Nehru had been jailed in Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra during the freedom struggle.There were accounts by politicians like Pattabhi Sitaramaiah, Maulana Azad and Rajmohan Gandhi, he said.
The interaction caught the eye as Sonia usually does not interact much in the House beyond her own benches.
The lack of communication with her neighbour, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, is quite noticeable and the outreach seemed as an attempt to signal her readiness to interact with non-NDA parties. There is a view that Congress has been unable to network with other opposition parties and its efforts to play a lead role in mobilising non-NDA opinion have not worked, with its perceived isolation over the GST bill being a case in point.
The discussion between Sonia and Mahtab seemed to signal a more informal approach on part of the Congress chief with her references to the BJD leader's family connections with the party before and after Independence.