Rahul Gandhi is crowned at a rally in Bahraich on Thursday. (PTI)

New Delhi, April 19: The state Congress leaders had a problem: who would wake up Rahul Gandhi?

The Amethi MP had had a tiring first day campaigning in western Uttar Pradesh, and was still in bed at Meerut’s Crystal Palace Hotel early next morning. But choosing the Patiali candidate couldn’t wait — the deadline was looming and there was a cacophony of claims from an army of hopefuls.

A nervous call went out to Kanishka Singh, the investment banker-turned-Rahul-aide. His answer: “No problem.”

Kanishka, son of Arunachal Pradesh governor S.K. Singh, and Rahul switched on the MP’s laptop, accessed the data, jiggled the caste combinations around and hey presto, there was the “perfect” candidate. A beaming Kanishka conveyed the good news to the Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders.

No problem. That could be the watchword for Kanishka and the others in Team Rahul, the band of mostly youthful aides busy ironing out every kink on the Gandhi scion’s Uttar Pradesh campaign.

In Aligarh, when it appeared that Rahul’s roadshow might clash with the streetside meetings of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh, it was the turn of young MPs Tejeshwani Seeramesh and Deepinder Singh Hooda to prove their worth.

They “gently” persuaded Akhilesh to put off his meetings. “They told him both he and Rahul are future leaders and would have to work together some day,” a source said.

The young guns stand out from the rest in their matey access to Rahul. While the Congress’s designated future leader is “Rahulji” to most, the Team calls him “RG”.

Experienced bats

Like the other Team Rahul, this one has its seniors, too. Former MP and Gandhi loyalist Satish Sharma is always at hand, chauffeuring Rahul’s Prado. Kishorilal Sharma, a family faithful from Amethi, and Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Salman Khurshid are the other veterans in the core team.

The importance of wiser counsel had become apparent when Rahul, at a rally in Bundelkhand’s Ghursarai, voiced his distress over the problems of sugarcane farmers.

In arid Bundelkhand, it’s difficult to spot a blade of grass, let alone sugarcane fields. The young MP had obviously got his south-central Uttar Pradesh mixed up with his western Uttar Pradesh.

It was then decided that Kanishka and Tejeshwani would consult Khurshid and draw up a list, district-wise, of the issues to be raised by Rahul, focusing on the poor, women and minorities.

One of Kishorilal’s tasks is to visit the rally venue a few hours early, assess the arrangements and size up the crowd. He then sends back advice whether Rahul should start right away or wait till the crowd builds up. Not a greenhorn’s job.

Satish is the local guardian, travelling with Rahul everywhere, advising him on such things as the safety of drinking that glass of lassi from the roadside vendor.

“There was this old woman in a Jhansi village, insisting over the SPG’s head that Rahul visit her home. Rahul immediately looked towards Satish. The family friend nodded, so he went to her home and even drank a glass of water,” a party source said.

Field placements

The role of the younger aides — or how they made the team — isn’t equally clear, although many have been seen routinely doing recces of the rally venues a few days ahead, talking to local journalists, officials and ordinary people.

While Milind Deora is known to be a close friend of Rahul, none in the Congress is willing to say how Tejeshwani of Karnataka or L. Rajagopal and Madhu Goud Yaskhi of Andhra Pradesh were drafted in.

The Team itself is hardly more forthcoming. “I will not say whether I am involved,” said Yaskhi.

Deora said: “I am trying to help in various ways but I can’t elaborate. I am, of course, not campaigning.”

Yaskhi and Deora haven’t yet been spotted in Uttar Pradesh but they have been manning Rahul’s central control room, set up in Delhi’s Hailey Road away from the media control room at the Congress headquarters, 24 Akbar Road.

Another person who has stayed put in the capital is Sachin Rao. The business management graduate from the University of Michigan supervises the overall arrangements from Rahul’s Delhi office, 12 Tughlaq Lane.

Kanishka is clearly the busiest. At every rally Rahul addressed, all petitioners were directed to Kanishka who heard them out and jotted down notes.

Being the media manager, he has ensured that a Doordarshan team has been part of the cavalcade, travelling in an SUV fitted with a TV set so that it can monitor the coverage by all other major channels.

Also, hourly bulletins are being put out on the Internet in English, Hindi and Urdu.

Pinch-hitters

The young MPs, however, have shown a knack for getting things done “with a nice word”, as Al Capone would have said.

One who wouldn’t be named showed his “powers of persuasion” when Rahul changed the candidate in a constituency — which went to polls last Friday — hours before the nomination deadline.

The MP was able to get a suspicious district magistrate and the returning officer to finish the paperwork in time.

“We are a national party, so please allot the symbol to our candidate. We are not one of these small parties that are always up to some hanky-panky,” he is believed to have told the officials.

Rajagopal’s turn came when, on the eve of the Mathura meeting, an “ego clash” erupted between local MP Manvendra Singh and the MLA, Pradeep Mathur, both from the Congress.

Rajagopal and Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Shukla told them to patch up for Rahul’s sake. “They were told that the party’s future depended on Rahul’s future,” a source said.

Lest the seniors at the party headquarters feel left out, Union minister Suresh Pachauri and general secretary V. Narayanswamy have been told to liaise with the state unit and the young MPs.

Pachauri and Narayanswamy, in turn, are being overseen by Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and party treasurer Motilal Vora. Janardhan Dwivedi’s media cell, however, has been kept out of the loop.