As poll result date closes in, Delhi’s political backstage gets active

Come May 23 and the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be out. This will see the arrival of regional party leaders in  New Delhi en masse.

Parties, especially the southern ones, like the DMK, the TRS, and the TDP have begun reserving posh rooms in 5- and 7-star hotels.

Hotel rooms would not be available in New Delhi from May 24 to June 5. The focus of party functionaries will now gently shift from poll campaigning to receiving and hosting party top brass in New Delhi.

The Lok Sabha secretariat has also begun preparations to welcome the new members. The secretariat is setting up welcome booths at airports and railway stations. Newly elected MPs will be brought to room number 62, first floor, Parliament House, where they will be given identity cards, house accommodation slips, vehicle passes and other routine documents.

Snehlata Shrivastava, Lok Sabha secretary-general, is likely to hold a press conference on May 22 to elaborate the massive drill undertaken by the secretariat to receive the 542 members of the new Lok Sabha.

Regional party leaders rush to New Delhi to watch government formation unfold at close quarters. The regional parties are apparently waiting to play their part by extending support to larger national players in forming government.

Some DMK leaders have already arrived in New Delhi to ensure that they are allotted bungalows near Parliament. Informally, some of them are also renewing their contacts in the Union Ministry of Housing to ensure that they get preferred bungalows. Some government bungalows in New Delhi are reportedly jinxed too. The occupants do not get to stay on for long, sources say in hushed tones.