When the new entrant into the Congress -- Bidesh Singh -- organised an election rally at his den Panki and invited party vice-president Rahul Gandhi to provide him a push he must be on the cloud nine.
But the treatment he met at the hands of the tallest leader of the party, which he joined just before polls, not only disappointed him but also thousands of his supporters present there.
The Congress candidate was not even called on the stage despite locals demanding to call their 'vikash purush' Bidesh Singh when was addressing the gathering on Saturday. Bidesh Singh would have realised that it well in advance when he spoke before Rahul Gandhi arrived. "The Gandhi family has not come here in Panki ever. I am confident that my people would rate me with the works done. May be due to security reason, I would not be able to present on the stage any longer," Singh, who has image of a Robinhood for the locals, said.
The former Independent MlA has been an associate of the present Hemant Soren Government and till last moment said to have bargained with some other parties along with the Congress to join hands. His image and background is also of more a muscleman in the area who makes things happen in his way.
Nevertheless the treatment even irked the locals. "What is thisIJ The Congress has humiliated our leader. All of us wanted him to speak but he was not even called on the stage," said Md Faizal amid 'Vir Bidesh jindabad' chant.
However the practice continued in Rahul's Manika's rally as well when party's official candidate Muneshwar Oraon was ignored completely, not called on the stage and not even mentioned Oraon once in his nearly 30 minutes speech of the Congress vice president.
On the contrary, all the six BJP candidates shared dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his Daltonganj rally on Friday. The candidates from constituencies in lohardaga and Gumla districts were also on the dais when Modi addressed another rally at Chandwa.
Also the rally, which was set to be weighed against the one, which took place on Friday in the region, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the appearance of the Congress leader proved an anticlimax on Saturday when thin 30,000 odd crowed waited more for their local MlA than him.
Nevertheless, Rahul used the occasion to hit at Modi largely by creating a fear psychosis and also mocking the efforts initiated by the Government to take along the people in common causes like cleanliness drive running across the country.
"It was the UPA, which empowered you by giving legislations like RTI, land Acquisition Bill, food security etc. Now you see all these legislations and Acts would weaken and be diluted. Power in the new regime has concentrated on hands of Modi and four/five of his pet bureaucrats. We had handed over powerful Acts to you and they are taking back them and handing over broom in your hands to clean the country," said Rahul with cheer from the crowd.
He lauded the land Acquisition Act as the greatest set of law in the last 60 years and said the Act was not against the development. Rahul also charged the BJP Government at the Centre for taking money from the corporate houses, which are in return diluting NREGA and other pro-people steps taken by the previous regime.
His also questioned the result of the cleanliness drive and on bringing back black money, situation on employment and promise for acche din. On development in Jharkhand, he hit again on the BJP and blamed it for ruling the State for 10 out of 14 years. "Modi talks about corruption. What happened to the development in Jharkhand as they have ruled the State for so longIJ We sent over Rs 20,000 crore to the State and they galloped with all," blamed the leader flanked by Jharkhand in-charge of the Congress BK Hariprasad, and ClP leader Rajendra Singh and pleaded to the voters to support the party so that it can provide jobs at local level.