Rahul Gandhi wears a traditional farmer’s turban at a rally in Aligarh on Saturday. (AFP)

Aligarh, July 9: Rahul Gandhi’s march against forcible land acquisition in Uttar Pradesh culminated in a farmers’ rally in Aligarh today, securing him plaudits from his party and the crowd, peppered with a call to do more by emulating Mamata Banerjee.

The kisan mahapanchayat, seen as part of the Congress’s preparation for next year’s Assembly polls, buoyed the party with its leaders claiming a gathering of 50,000. But the police put the number at 20,000.

“Rahulji has made a good beginning. His march has struck a chord with the people. But he needs to do a lot more,” said one among a group of medical students from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as they travelled to the venue, the Numaish (exhibition) ground.

“He should toil the way Mamata Banerjee did in Bengal to defeat the mighty communists. He will have to undertake more padayatras,” the student said.

Rahul, who has been marching in western Uttar Pradesh since Tuesday, virtually sounded the poll bugle and presented himself as a champion of farmers cutting across caste lines.

He alleged that even Dalits were suffering under Mayavati’s land acquisition drive and asserted the UPA government’s upcoming land acquisition law would protect farmers’ interests.

The Congress hoped Rahul’s campaign had won over farmers from all castes and would set the party up for an impressive poll performance.

Mohammad Faizan, a student of Unani medicine at AMU, however, sought to caution the Congress general secretary against abandoning the campaign.

“He has to lead a sustained campaign and travel across the state to prove his seriousness. A one-off march will not do. He should take lessons from Mamata Banerjee who struggled for years before success came her way,” Faizan said.

Almost all the Congress MPs and Union ministers from the state were at the rally and many addressed the crowd. Most of the party’s 20 Uttar Pradesh MPs are from the state’s east and they all brought busloads of people from their constituencies, so much so that almost half the crowd seemed to be from the far-off eastern districts.

“We have come from Kushinagar near the Bihar border. People have been transported in over 50 four-wheelers and five buses,” said party worker Umakant Pandey. Kushinagar is the stronghold of the Congress’s R.P.N. Singh, a junior Union minister.

Some of the farmers at the rally too drew parallels between Rahul and Mamata and asserted that the Amethi MP’s choice of land acquisition as an issue would serve him well.

“Like Mamata Banerjee in Bengal, Rahulji has grabbed a burning issue. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh are fed up with Mayavati and Mulayam (Singh Yadav) and are yearning for change,” said Pyare Singh, a tiller from Mathura.

Sensing the issue’s potential, Rahul repeatedly mentioned the police firing on farmers protesting against acquisition of their land at prices below market rates.

“Farmers are ready to give their land for development, like roads and bridges. But in UP, farmers’ land is forcibly acquired for colonies, golf courses and racing tracks. And when they oppose it and demand the market price, they are greeted with bullets,” Rahul declared to loud applause.