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Chidambaram defended Congress saying Daljeet’s joining BJP is a non-issue since he has always been an apolitical person.

Dismissing as a “non-event” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s half-brother Daljeet Singh Kohli joining BJP, Congress on Saturday ridiculed the BJP asking whether its “dirty tricks department was still functioning”.

“As far as I know he is a non-political person. He never made a political statement in his life. His joining a party is a non-event,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters at the AICC briefing.

When asked about the reported comments of a nephew of Singh that there was a “deal” behind Kohli joining the BJP, Chidambaram said, “it is quite possible. Why should I disbelief that. I think they had set up a dirty tricks department. Is that still functioning?”

The Prime Minister on Saturday said that he was saddened by the decision of his half-brother Kohli to join BJP. “I feel very sad. I have no control. They are all adults,” he said while replying to queries on the sidelines of the Padma awards function here.

Kohli on Friday joined BJP at a public rally in Amritsar in the presence of the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The entry of Kohli, a local businessman, into the BJP came a day after the prime minister rejected perceptions of a ‘Modi wave’ in the country.

Welcoming Kohli into the BJP fold, Modi had said he will further strengthen the party. PMO sources had said Manmohan Singh’s family was “shocked” at the turn of events involving Kohli. “His intentions are not known but he is free to pursue his political career,” they had said, adding the prime minister and Kohli have not been keeping in touch since long.

Prime Minister Singh has six sisters while Kohli is his half-brother, the sources said. The prime minister’s mother died at an early age.

Meanwhile during the AICC briefing, Chidambaram said, “We are going into the elections with an intention to win and form a government.”

He was asked at the AICC briefing whether Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s remarks that Congress could form the next government by joining hands with “the third front” was an admission of having lost the polls. “I don’t see any great possibility of Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister. Even if he gets more seats than us, he would not get support of the regional parties… As the other alternative, Congress and third front can form the government. We will try to form a secular government,” Chavan had said.

Chidambaram feigned ignorance about any remarks by Congress leaders when he was told that many of them have admitted in private that the party could be getting around 120 seats and hence would have to work out some “secular” alternative to stop Modi.

Congress leaders have been insisting in private that a UPA-III government is more than a possibility after the Lok Sabha elections with the BJP PM candidate antagonising the regional satraps like Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee.

The assessment in Congress circles is that the opposition alliance will not be able to garner more than 200 seats, leaving an opportunity for the Congress to cobble up a coalition with inclusion of new allies.

“Modi has antagonised all possible allies, may it be Jayalalithaa, Mamata Banerjee or Naveen Patnaik in the belief that the Prime Ministership is coming his way after May 16 when the results are out. But the reality is bound to be different,” a senior party leader maintained.

The talk of UPA-III was also a signal to the minorities that Congress was still in the electoral game and needed their total support.

A section of Congressmen claim that party could be in the game of forming the next government if it wins a minimum of 120 plus seats and the BJP was restricted below 200. With stability weighing heavily on its mind, Congress will go in for the search of new allies to form a UPA-III government and has no intention to support a third front government, is the refrain of leaders of the ruling party.

The “no Third Front government” cries in the Congress are becoming louder as the party has become wiser by the experiments of 1990-91 and 1996 during which it gave support from outside to the governments led by Chandra Shekhar, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.