New Delhi:
Buoyed by the Congress' showing in Karnataka, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in a lighter moment, turned into a TV reporter today. The senior Congress leader grabbed a mike from a television reporter and thrust it front of senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh as the latter emerged from Parliament.
"Don't you credit Congress with victory?" the minister asked Mr Singh, his predecessor in the Finance Ministry before the Congress came to power at the Centre in May 2004. The veteran BJP leader didn't mince words, acceding that BJP had failed. "People vote for governance and if you stop governance, people will vote you out." he said.
Mr Chidambaram was answering reporters on the Karnataka polls when he saw the veteran BJP leader come out of Parliament.
"He is a gentleman", Mr Chidambaram later said, referring to Mr Singh, as he returned the mike to the reporter.
"It is a message to all political parties. The people watch very closely. Whoever forms the government must deliver," the Finance Minister said, reacting to a question whether the result of the Karnataka Assembly poll was a larger message to the UPA Government as the people of the state voted the BJP out of power on the issue of corruption.