Amit Shah shunned public appearances and social media comments for the second consecutive day on Wednesday after the Delhi poll drubbing but the digital vacuum was filled by Uma Bharti who fired a tweet that appeared to take a veiled dig at the home minister who was once feted for his election-winning skills.

Shah was not seen at his office in the home ministry. Sources said he was at his new official residence, 6A Krishna Menon Marg, where former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart A.B. Vajpayee lived. Shah is learnt to have briefly met a group of MPs of ally Lok Janshakti Party at his residence on Wednesday.

Bharti, known for hitting the headlines by tormenting leaders, tweeted on Tuesday: “The Assembly polls in different states in the past one-and-a-half years and after that the Lok Sabha polls and then the results of the state polls in the recent months clearly tell us that in the BJP there is no leader equal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Bharti posted three tweets as a “message from the Delhi polls” and hailed the Prime Minister with the slogan “Chhatrapati Modi zindabad”.

In party circles, this was seen as an indirect swipe at Shah since he had given the impression that he was trying to prove that he too could win elections for the BJP by projecting himself as a mass leader like Modi. The Delhi poll was the first election after Shah had stepped down as the party boss. Despite not being the BJP president, Shah went out like one and led from the front.

Unlike other state polls, Modi had sought to maintain some distance from the campaign arena, allowing Shah to be seen as the face of the election. Modi addressed just two campaign meetings while Shah was everywhere — holding road shows, addressing meetings and even micro-managing party workers.