Passengers on the Delhi-Dehradun Shatabdi Express were in for a surprise on Thursday. Exactly at 11 am, the BJP brigade on the train — including former Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, CP Thakur and former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharastra Gopinath Munde — put their party’s campaign to the test. Munde took the lead in galvanising a chorus, urging passengers to join in as they sang Vande Mataram. Most of the passengers in coach C6, including journalists, had little choice but to participate. Strangely though, a few BJP leaders in the coach remained seated and did not join in the recitation.

The discord was obvious at Dehradun too as party leader and actor Shatrughan Sinha failed to turn up when the National Song was being sung. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad had little to say, he would find out the reason for his absence.