Sonia Gandhi meets farmers at 10 Janpath on Thursday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Feb. 21: Out of power, shadow Prime Minister L.K. Advani has been able to draw professionals for his “dream team”, but the ruling Congress is struggling in the “talent” hunt.

Former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval, former defence secretary Ajay Prasad and former home secretary Anil Baijal are among the once-powerful bureaucrats frequenting Advani’s place to draw up a blueprint for “transparent, clean, efficient and de-ideologised governance”, which had been the BJP leader’s pet theme in the post-Ayodhya years.

Vijai Kapoor, one of the first officers to join the party after retirement, also attends these brainstorming sessions.

But Congress leaders, including a senior minister in the government, say their party has not drawn such professionals despite Rahul Gandhi’s emphasis on “cleaning up politics to make it more accountable and open”.

They have a few possible answers. The first, apparently, is “lack of access” to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, though the two are not to be blamed for the situation.

“It is the coterie around them. The leaders in the group are so insecure that they fear a new talent will loosen their stranglehold over Sonia and Rahul,” said a party insider.

The other reason is the lack of “ideological direction”. In Advani’s “de-ideologised” dispensation, the BJP is identified with certain “isms” (beliefs) from which it has never swerved, sources said.

“Terrorism and minority appeasement are two such themes. This stand finds favour with status-quoists in the administration, who are in majority. Recall how many retired army officers joined the BJP in the 90s. The Congress is wishy-washy. We are an ideological party but found wanting in taking a stand,” a leader said.

Nuclear deal advocates rue that an unambiguous stand could have gone down well with the “BJP kind of constituency” — those in favour of no compromises on the country’s strategic interests — without getting enmeshed in the “secular-communal” debate.

Another problem is the quiet burial given to the “one-person, one-post” principle. Sonia recently named several Union ministers as party chiefs in states. Apparently, this happened because top leaders could not zero in on the “right persons for the right jobs”.

But the new appointments have sparked concern that the ministers — Priya Ranjan Das Munshi (Bengal), Suresh Pachauri (Madhya Pradesh) and Saifuddin Soz (Jammu & Kashmir) — could run into trouble with the Election Commission because of the possible “conflict” in their roles.

As state party chiefs, they will be expected to be “aggressively political” but as ministers, they must maintain propriety, the leader said.