Rahul raises a toast to Chidambaram, Tamils

SIVAGANGA: To mobilize a crowd of over 5,000 to wait under a fiery sun from 2.30 pm to 4 pm for Rahul Gandhi's campaign speech for P Chidamabaram, in what should easily be temperatures of 45 degrees or more, goes to the organizational capabilities of the DMK-Congress combine in the Sivaganga constituency.

Whether such crowd mobilization expertise will fetch votes for the home minister is another matter, but Rahul Gandhi's effort here today has at least helped calm the bitterness in the coalition after Congress president Sonia Gandhi called off her campaign in TN.

There is a welcome roar from the crowd as Mr Gandhi gets on the dais, and he wastes no time in appealing to the Tamil identity, and to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in particular.

"Tamil Nadu has a special place in my family's heart", he says, to some applause, and he compliments the state for being one of the better performing states in the country, which brings louder cheers.

Knowing well the emotions of locals regarding the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, Mr Gandhi goes on to explain it is not only the Tamils here that have a special place in his heart, but Tamils everywhere, including those in the "US, Europe and Sri Lanka". There is more applause as the home minister's son Karti Chidambaram translates those words into Tamil.

Mr Gandhi also reels of the benefits that the Congress and the UPA have brought to Tamil Nadu, touching on the agricultural debt write-off, the student loans being approved in Sivaganga and the BHEL unit planned in the constituency, and reminds the crowd that "your MP has been part of these decisions".

Rahul Gandhi then proceeds to summon a child from the crowd and cuddles him on stage, a gambit that earned him media eyeballs in Kerala last month. The two-year-old, Manikantan, however, declines to smile, but Mr Gandhi increases his own appeal, walking all the way to the crowd to hand the toddler to his mother, Kavita.

Candidate Chidambaram promises that if the government is re-elected the employment guarantee program wages would be raised to Rs 100 from the present level of Rs 80. Rahul Gandhi offers more, promising that he has decided to spend more time in Tamil Nadu post elections, just as he has been doing in UP in recent months.

That warms the crowd of Congress and DMK supporters who have braved the sun for hours at the open ground near the Sivaganga railway station. The coalition would now be hoping that if nothing else, the allegation that star campaigners have been overlooking candidates in Tamil Nadu has been addressed.