RJD supporters on camels on Dakbungalow Road. Picture by Sachin

Patna, May 15: The heat and the humidity was no dampener for scores of RJD supporters today — their leader had called out to them and they could not but respond.

The crowd had started to trickle in Gandhi Maidan, the venue of the Parivartan Rally, from 8 in the morning. On their way to the ground, many even ducked for cover from the scorching sun. Around two hours later, the numbers had grown with several people dancing to tunes of Bhojpuri songs being played by band parties.

Women from Gopalganj, Lalu’s home district, came dressed in green saris — the colour of the party — while the men came in T-shirts of the same colour. Some like Samastipur resident Dhani Ram even brought his six-year-old son.

Sunita Devi, a Gopalganj resident, said: Most of the women were wearing colourful saris. We wanted to look different and intentionally bought green saris.” The Telegraph spotted at least 10 women in green saris.

Slogans of “Lalu Yadav Jindabaad”, “Rabri Devi Jindabaad”, “Nitish ka khul gaya pol, paani bijli dono gol” echoed on the Patna roads as the city turned green. There was not much chaos like earlier RJD rallies though. As solid as rock behind the Lalu bandwagon, the supporters came for one cause — to overthrow Nitish from power. Waiting in the scorching sun for the rally was a small price to pay.

Dhani Ram said: “Be it summer, winter or rains, whenever Laluji would call us, we will come to support him. He is a messiah for the Dalits and backward people. We do not mind attending such rallies in the future too.” On his shoulder was his son.

A while later, a man dressed in girls’ clothes was spotted dancing at Bailey Road. Sources said JD(U) MP Shivanand Tiwari’s son Manttu Tiwari had brought the youth from Buxar to entertain the crowd to raunchy Bhojpuri numbers. Although Tiwari’s son kept away from the dancing, he seemed enthusiastic in his support of the crowd.

As the heat went up, women from Begusarai district opened their umbrellas without missing a beat in their march to the venue. The supporters were also seen enjoying the traditional dance of the Tharu community of West Champaran.

Behind every other group, a cart followed with a tub filled with drinking water for the supporters. The people halted for a minute, quenched their thirst and went on to dance again. Those who failed to get water from the cart, did so with chilled beer from a shop near Dakbungalow roundabout.

Aurangabad resident Mithlesh Kumar said: “What’s wrong in drinking a can of beer in such hot weather? It will keep me refreshed once I reach Gandhi Maidan and then I can cheer for my leader.”

But he was quite fast to issue a disclaimer. “Do not misunderstand me. If the weather was good, water would have been enough.”

If you thought only the supporters walked down to Gandhi Maidan, think again. Several RJD MLAs as well as RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi also walked down to the venue with the part’s youth wing members.

The heat was on the rise clearly — when Tej Pratap was pushed by a youth by mistake, the supporter got a slap in return.

The rally took off in full steam after Lalu reached Gandhi Maidan with his wife, and former chief minister Rabri Devi, on his special rally bus with some of his supporters around 1.30pm.