Rahul Gandhi in Ghaziabad on Sunday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

Ghaziabad, March 18: The Congress’s bravehearts were unsure if it was a politically wise move just over a fortnight before the Uttar Pradesh elections.

The party had virtually ceded western Uttar Pradesh to Chowdhury Charan Singh and later to the Janata Dal and Lok Dal incarnations and the BJP. So when on March 16, the Congress’s strategists decided on “launching” Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh — as distinct from Amethi and Rae Bareli — many wondered if the Ghaziabad, Meerut, Moradabad and Bareilly districts on Delhi’s borders were an ideal pad.

But if the first lap of his “jan sampark abhiyaan” (mass contact campaign) is an indication, the sceptics can relax.

Despite the hurry with which the campaign was planned, the visible lack of organisation and the absence of a single MLA in the five Assembly seats his cavalcade rolled through, Rahul had the people of Ghaziabad and Meerut in thrall.

“For the first time in several years, we actually put up so many party flags, posters and buntings,” said Khushrat Rizvi, who heads the party’s west Uttar Pradesh women’s cell, wistfully.

To the Congress, Rahul is the “yuva hriday ka samrat” as the BJP’s Kalyan Singh was the “Hindu hriday ka samrat” in his heyday.

In coining the sobriquet, the party’s publicists, wittingly or unwittingly, hit the right chord because the Amethi MP’s roadside meetings drew youth and women in large numbers.

Young men and women clicked his pictures on cellphones. On the balustrades and rooftops of buildings in Modi Nagar’s Upper Bazar, where he stopped to address a crowd, sporting Congress flags, middle-aged women and girls heard him in rapt attention. Once he was done, they speeded down to join the throngs waiting to touch him and shake hands.

“He is gentle and doesn’t come with baggage, much like his father did in 1984,” said Anil Tyagi, who came to “look at” Rahul at Hans Inter College ground in Murad Nagar.

The Congress’s “baba” warmed up to the crowds and made the right gestures. After the meeting, just as he was about to get into his Prado, driven by Gandhi family confidant Satish Sharma, a worker sprinted across the road to fetch a chuski (ice lolly) for a visibly exhausted Rahul. He promptly dug into it.

As the cavalcade headed towards Modi Nagar, running well behind time, a gaggle of women forcibly halted his vehicle at a crossing, forced him out and made him speak. Asked if he had a message for his female fans, he said: “My best wishes are with them.”

For the 15-km stretch from Modi Nagar to Meerut, Rahul discarded the hood of his SUV, stood up and cheered the crowds who showered rose and marigold petals on him.

His car screeched to a halt when he spotted a truck-driver, waving frenetically from the other side of the divider. The driver was summoned and greeted by Rahul.

It was not as though his comfort level was perfect from the word go. In his first stop at Gandhi Prahalad Gaddi, he shuffled nervously on the dais, spoke on his cellphone and waved a little indifferently to the crowd.

Rahul’s speech was on development or the lack of it since the Congress was voted out of power in Uttar Pradesh. “Forty per cent of UP’s funds came from the Centre. Manmohan Singhji and Sonia Gandhiji have announced several packages. The question is what happened to the Rs 4,000 crore the UPA government sanctioned? Has it been used for roads, power generation or education?”

“No,” shouted the crowd.

Once he began warming up, he amended this stock address. For instance, at one place where he was besieged with questions, he said: “Bhaiyya, one question a minute. It took me 10 minutes to pacify you all. You were so noisy. But I can’t understand why you endured 15 years of non-Congress rule without making a noise.”

He wove his political pedigree in. “My family lives in Delhi but my heart is in UP. The love and respect you have given to my family from the days of my great grandfather onwards is something I cannot repay all my life.”

There was a paean to Uttar Pradesh: “Those from UP who migrate to Mumbai and Punjab work extremely hard because the objective conditions are congenial, because the governments encourage them. In UP, the government ensures people are not allowed to work.”

But Rahul made no mention of law and order or the Nithari killings. Asked why, he said: “I will speak about everything, but one thing at a time. Wait for tomorrow.”