Rajasthan polls: Pro-Modi slogans at Rahul rally

Khedli(Rajasthan): There was a major blooper today as a local Congress leader raised the slogan "Hamare neta kaisa ho (how should be our leader)" at Rahul Gandhi's rally in Khedli, and the crowd replied "Narendra Modi jaisa ho (like Narendra Modi). At the rally, a section of the crowd chanted Modi Zindabad and showed pro-Modi posters. Local Congress leaders attributed to be a mischief on part of Modi supporters. Rahul Gandhi's rally in Jat-dominated Churu was marked more by emotional appeal on part of the Gandhi scion about the sacrifices made by his grandmother and father. The second rally was in Khedli, an Ahir-dominated belt in Alwar. After Narendra Modi's successful rally in Jaipur on September 10, the ruling Congress party was under pressure to ensure big turnouts of people at the Churu and Khedli rallies.Congress had fared badly in the two regions in the 2008 assembly elections.Congress hopes to improve chances in north Rajasthan, which marked one of its worst performances in the last assembly elections.Congress sources said, the reason why the rally venues were chosen was becaue this was the only region where neither Rahul nor Sonia Gandhi has addressed any public rally in past three months. Sonia had recently addressed public rallies in Jodhpur and Ajmer divisions, while Rahul had addressed rallies in Udaipur and Kota divisions. Two more divisions were covered by Rahul's rallies today, while the third one would be covered by Sonia next month.Congress had put in all its efforts to present Rahul's rallies this week a big crowd puller even in northern Rajasthan, where the party holds only 13 of the 35 assembly seats of Bikaner division and Alwar district. The party has arranged Rahul rallies at Churu, which is in Bikaner division, and at Khedli in Alwar district. Curiously, the party is presenting the Khedli rally as part of the Bharatpur division even though Alwar comes under the Jaipur division."Khedli is on the Alwar-Bharatpur border so it can be counted as a Bharatpur division rally; the Jaipur division rally would be held later at Jaipur,"a Congress source said. There were reports that the decision to have the Bharatpur division's rally in Alwar district was influenced by union minister Jitendra Singh, who is known to be close to Rahul Gandhi.The Bikaner division comprises four districts including Bikaner, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Churu. The division has 24 assembly seats-maximum seven being in Bikaner district, six each in Sriganganagar and Churu districts, while Hanumangarh district having five seats. In the 2008 assembly elections, the Congress and the BJP tally in the division was 10 assembly seats each. The CPI(M) won one- Anoopgarh (Pawan Duggal) and three others went to the independents.In Churu and Bikaner districts the Congress could win just two seats each, while the BJP one four seats each. One seat went to an independent. In Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts, however, the BJP was restricted to one seat in each district, while the Congress got three each in both the districts. The independents and the CPM pocketed the remaining three.The Congress performance was pathetic in Alwar district in 2008. Of the 11 assembly seats here, the party could get just three, while BJP got seven (one was won by Samajwadi Party).