Rahul Gandhi in Bhopal on Tuesday. (PTI)

Bhopal, Nov. 25: Like a Hindi film hero reaching the scene of action in the nick of time, Rahul Gandhi arrived at the Dussehra grounds here minutes before the 5pm deadline marking the end of the election campaign this evening, fully aware that a victory in Madhya Pradesh means a lot more than ending the jinx of defeat on the Congress party.

It will also catapult him from the ranks of the “bachcha brigade” into the big league.

Rahul’s brief and lacklustre speech did not exactly set the crowd on fire but that did not stop him from being the star of the show. The venue was plastered with his posters, the giant hoarding in the backdrop featured Rahul prominently alongside Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia (Maulana Azad, Ambedkar and Manmohan Singh were the only non-Family members in the pantheon) and the party’s manifesto gives Rahul’s picture the same billing as that of Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister.

The crowds, waiting for a couple of hours for the crown prince to arrive, were also treated to some election campaign lyrics — set to old Hindi film tunes — centred on Rahul, such as “Rahul Gandhi saath mein, vote padenge haath mein” and “Rahul Gandhi ke sapnon ka aisa raj banana hain….”

Sonia came to the state at the tail-end of the campaign to address two meetings yesterday while Rahul has covered a lot more ground in both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – part of a design, Congress insiders feel, to push Rahul centre-stage.

This, of course, is not Rahul’s first election campaign but there is a distinct difference from his earlier forays. In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in the summer of 2007 and again in Gujarat that winter, Rahul’s main campaign mode were “road shows”.

These shows managed to draw huge crowds, eager to catch a glimpse of the Nehru-Gandhi scion who enjoys a celebrity status on a par with Bollywood superstars, but little of the adulation translated into votes. The party’s dismal showing in Uttar Pradesh and humiliating defeat in Gujarat seemed to have convinced Congress managers that such campaign methods were ineffective – and ended up diminishing rather than enhancing Rahul’s profile as the Congress’s great hope.

In Madhya Pradesh, Rahul not only stuck to the old-fashioned method of addressing party rallies but played a more important behind-the-scenes role, Congress sources said. With a year’s experience as Congress general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the NSUI, Rahul is said to have been instrumental in getting tickets for a number of “youth” candidates who are likely to play a key role after the elections.

These include Jeetu Patwari, state Youth Congress president who is contesting from the Rau seat in Indore district, and Rashmi Pawar, the state NSUI chief who has been fielded in Gwalior south. Others include Ranjan Mandoli, Shyam Lal, Mahendra Singh and Nasir Islam.

But the most interesting is probably Xavier Meda, a tribal youth who is fighting the Jhabua seat after Rahul managed to push his case even though the state Congress unit had decided to give the ticket to Kalavati Bhuria, niece of Union minister Kantilal Bhuria.

His “core team” apart, Rahul is likely to have a big say in who becomes chief minister in the event of a Congress victory -- something which seemed very remote even a week ago but is now within the realm of possibility.

Over the past one week, an anti-incumbency current has steadily gained momentum not just in the tribal belt but in large swathes of rural Madhya Pradesh and even the cities have begun to feel the heat.

The BJP, which started on a high, is banking almost solely on the “good image” of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan to stem the deep unpopularity of many of its MLAs.

But the “BSP factor” could queer the pitch for the Congress in northern MP which borders Uttar Pradesh and that is why Congress leaders -- much more cautious by nature than the perennially overconfident BJP – prefer placing their bets on a “hung assembly” than an outright victory.

What is certain, however, is that the Congress will vastly improve its tally over the dismal 38 seats it won in 2003. The Congress is gaining because of the grassroots disenchantment with the BJP and not because of any great effort made by its fractious leadership.

But never mind the reasons. In true Congress tradition, it is the leader -- Rahul in this case -- who will get all the kudos if the party wrests Bhopal from the BJP.