Sonia

New Delhi, Jan. 8: A simple question today had Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi stumped. When did Sonia Gandhi last visit her office at party headquarters, 24 Akbar Road?

“She does come periodically… now and then. In terms of numbers… we haven’t really counted,” Chaturvedi looked befuddled.

Beat correspondents recalled the last time she came was in January 2005.

The question would never be put to the BJP, all whose presidents spent a few hours every day in their office when they were in Delhi.

What raised it today was that Sonia actually walked the 100 yards from 10 Janpath to her chamber and spent three hours there, meeting ministers and party officials.

It’s election time folks, and Sonia, journalists were told, will spend more time in her office to meet the “aam janta”. She’ll be there tomorrow, too.

Sonia’s office, which lies between those of general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and treasurer Motilal Vora, had been a sanctum sanctorum of sorts, guarded round-the-clock by personnel from the special protection force she is entitled to.

A giant padlock, sealed and signed by those on duty, heightened the mystique. Even those lucky enough to have set foot in it never shared a word on what it looked like.

The “enigma” was unravelled today, but for the wrong reason. When word got around that “Madam” would arrive at 10 am, the staff went into a tizzy. Vora, the de facto office-in-charge, dashed in an hour early to have the room dusted and cleaned.

A few months ago, a keen-eyed staffer had noticed damp patches on the walls, caused by a leaking overhead water tank. It was set right, but the journalists who stepped in for a peek caught whiffs of distemper and varnish from the bathroom.

Nothing in the room cried out for attention. The cloth wall-hanging bore the likenesses of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi with the message: “Dil se dil tak raah sabse chhota rasta hai (the path from one heart to another is the shortest).”

A few words in Russian indicated it was a gift from the former Soviet Union. There was a painting of Rajiv and a granite bust of Indira.

Among those who met her, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh was forced by security to leave most of his motorcade outside the gate, while former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal had to walk.

A party official from Manipur couldn’t get past the gate because he didn’t have an appointment.

The visit, though, ensured that the filter coffee at the canteen was up to the mark instead of the usual milky brew.