Rahul Gandhi in Amethi on Friday. (PTI)

Lucknow, May 17: Stopping Rahul Gandhi on the road and inviting him home for dinner may be mission impossible for most. But Rekha Pasi, 30, of Banpurwa is different: she is a Dalit from the heartland.

Rekha and her friend Sumitra, 28, were among the crowd that had gathered at the mouth of the village, 7km from Amethi, late at night to watch Rahul pass by.

The young MP had slipped out of the Munshiganj guesthouse with aides Manoj Mattu and K.L. Sharma around 9.30 after the journalists accompanying him on his tour of his constituency had retired for the night.

The local police knew nothing as they drove to Saraikhema village, got off their cars and began walking past one Dalit village after another, speaking to those they met on the way.

They were just outside Banpurwa, 7km from Amethi, when Rahul spotted Rekha and Sumitra jostling in the crowd. It was Rahul who invited himself over.

The MP walked up to them and asked: “Do you know me?”

“Janti hoon… tu Rahul Gandhi ho (yes, you are Rahul Gandhi),” Rekha said.

“Khana khilaogi (would you offer me dinner)?” was Rahul’s next question.

State Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh today confirmed that Rahul spent the night at a Dalit home. “He interacted with the Dalits and had food at their home,” he said.

Rahul’s security guards and a couple of senior Congress leaders followed the MP to Rekha’s home, about 100 yards from the spot.

Rahul had puri and subzee and slept on a string cot in the open, in front of a temple near Rekha’s hut, from midnight till 3am, Congress sources said.

Around 3, he was apparently woken up by a dust storm and lightning and quickly headed back to the guesthouse.

Unlike his visit to a Dalit home in January, Rahul held a choupal (a village meeting) to find out about residents’ problems. He asked them whether the benefits from the Centre’s welfare schemes were reaching them.

“The members of a self-help group, Gulabi Sammhu, that had direct interaction with the local Dalits, were asked by Mr Gandhi to join the choupal,” a Congress leader said.

The subjects ranged from sinking a hand pump to the availability of jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Rahul asked Sharma, his aide, to see that more hand pumps were installed in the villages.

Rahul will carry on visiting Dalits, his party said.

“He will indeed visit more Dalit homes and have food with them to bridge the divide between Dalits and people from the upper castes in this part of India,” said Jagdish Piyus, a Congress leader in Amethi.