NEW DELHI: Two days after his “hug and wink”, Congress president Rahul Gandhi met with a reality check of sorts when a senior party leader took exception to the gesture that spawned a thousand memes.

At the CWC meeting, Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik reportedly lauded Rahul’s performance during the debate on the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on Friday. The high-voltage attack on PM Narendra Modi as well as his dramatic decision to hug the BJP mascot scored “full marks” in Patnaik’s book, but for the wink.

According to sources, Patnaik told Rahul that his sterling performance would have made for “100/100” but for the wink which reduced it to “98/100”. He reportedly said the BJP latched on to the wink to try and overshadow the speech.

Interestingly, Patnaik came in for rebuke from Sonia Gandhi after he said that Odisha deserved “special category status” ahead of Andhra Pradesh. Sonia interjected that he could not compare the two states as the promise to AP was made during the bifurcation of united Andhra, and that too by then PM Manmohan Singh . She said Congress would fulfil the promise on coming back to power at the Centre.

Importantly, Rahul warned party leaders to not “speak out of turn” and threatened he would act against indiscipline. The warning came in the backdrop of statements from Congress ranks which BJP has used to attack the rival.

The party last week distanced itself from MP Shashi Tharoor ’s “Hindu Pakistan” comment and had earlier suspended Mani Shankar Aiyar for his condescending comment about Modi.

The issue of EVMs was also raised. Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said there should be an inquiry into the voting machines.

