As the Bharatiya Janata Party suffered its humiliating defeat in the Delhi elections on Tuesday, one person who was conspicuous by his absence on any public platform was party president Amit Shah.
While Shah is said to be busy with his son's wedding in Ahmedabad, he has not yet appeared on any news channel or public forum to accept the party's defeat, even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took to Twitter to concede defeat.
BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi, who lost the Krishna Nagar 'safe seat', also came out to address the media, accepting defeat and congratulating her former colleague Arvind Kejriwal.
Shah, however, is yet to make any statement to the media. Even his official Twitter account, run by his office, did not show any posts by the leader.
Shah, the party's chief strategist credited with bringing it to power in the general elections and in several state elections over the last ten months, had also micromanaged the party's campaign in the capital.
He had charted a strategy of a massive door-to-door outreach programme before the polls, setting specific targets for each of the two lakh booth workers for making contact with at least 30 families, and meeting them at least four times, NDTV had reported.
He was also present when BJP roped in Bedi last month, and had praised her choice during a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
Shah and Modi had pushed for a higher voter turn-out hoping to garner support from the Modi wave, which had helped the party win other crucial state elections.
But while Delhi did step out in record numbers to vote, the BJP is left with only 3 seats in the assembly, a result which even the party's detractors could not have wished for.
And while Shah had taken credit for the party's victories in the elections last year, a feat that earned him the top post in the party, he is missing from the scene when it is time to take responsibility over the Delhi debacle.
