Change of mood: Drums, desolation at HQs

By early evening on Tuesday, weather wisecracks began.

- ASHISH TIWARI, RAKSHIT KUMAR & SUVEEN SINHA

Old pros on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg in New Delhi, which still houses a few newspaper offices, said: "Mausam badal gaya (the weather has changed)."

The reference was not only to the short, but intense spell of rain in parched Delhi, but also to the election results that raised the prospects of a coalition government at the Centre.

BSZ Marg is a 17-minute walk from the Bharatiya Janata Party office at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg. This walk, by five in the evening, became a breeze, not just because of the rain. Security uniforms sprouted along the road and yellow iron barriers with squeaky wheels blocked the road.

Within half an hour, vehicular movement on this road became limited to police and other government vehicles. Small groups of BJP workers about a dozen men and three or four women to a group began to walk towards the party office. Nearly all of them had a dash of saffron on them: Cap, scarf, stole, ribbon, or everything. Intermittently, they raised slogans of "Narendra Modi ki jai," Jai Shri Ram," and "Bharat Mata ki Jai" glory to Prime Minister Modi, Lord Ram, and Mother India.

As Business Standard joined one of these groups on the walk, a group member, who was busy speaking into a phone camera, in video mode, held up by a mate, paused to say he had come from Gokulpuri, in North Delhi, which is about 13 km by the Delhi Metro. The group had come in a specially arranged bus.

Closer to the party premises, there was a simple security check, after which a pink drink was on offer (it promised to be strawberry shake but tasted like Rooh Afza). More groups formed, taking selfies as drums rented the air and men and women danced, watched on by horse riders wearing the badge of Sohan Lal Ghodiwala. Also watching over them were huge posters and cutouts of Prime Minister Modi.