Priyanka in Rae Bareli on Tuesday. (PTI)

Lucknow, March 26: Priyanka Vadra was campaigning, but for a change someone else was reminding the Congress old-timers of a young Indira Gandhi.

The 12-year-old boy stood at the edge of the crowd, waving the Congress flag and shouting pro-Priyanka slogans, when he caught the star campaigner’s eye. His answer to her first question left her stunned.

“Kid Congress?” Priyanka had never heard of it.

“Yes, I’m from the Kid Congress,” the boy insisted. Seeing the still confused look, he explained: “The Bal Congress, which I have formed and of which I am the president. We have 100 members.”

Tickled and deeply impressed, Priyanka promised to raise the number to 102 soon enough. “My children will join you soon,” she said.

That was how Class VIII student Abhishek Jaiswal stole the show at Tuesday’s rally at Lalganj in Rae Bareli, the constituency of Priyanka’s mother Sonia Gandhi.

But what was giving goose-bumps to the septuagenarian local Congress leader, Gaya Prasad Shukla, was that this had been the constituency of Priyanka’s late grandmother as well.

“The scene was almost a throwback to the 1930s when Indira Gandhi, then about the same age as Abhishek, had launched her Monkey Brigade, a children’s group,” Shukla said.

Indira was 11 or 12 when, around 1929-30, she launched the Monkey Brigade or Vanar Sena because she was too young to join the Congress. At first, father Jawaharlal Nehru was merely amused, but the group quickly grew to 1,000 members and provided good enough support to the Independence movement.

The brigade — its name inspired by the monkey army of Ramayan — sewed Congress flags and hoisted them everywhere, wrote letters for jailed freedom fighters, and provided food and water to agitators and first aid to those beaten up by police.

“Their aim was to help end British control over India. As the brigade’s leader, she (Indira) delivered speeches. The children warned the freedom fighters who were about to be arrested,” said a history professor at Lucknow University.

Abhishek formed his group a few months ago, his relatives said. Every day after school, the boys move house to house in Lalganj, 40km from Rae Bareli town, campaigning for the Congress and planting party flags. They also hold children’s meetings.

Abhishek had come to the rally with three friends —Kishore, Niren and Subrat — all aged 11-12, wearing white shirts and chocolate-coloured shorts, and all waving flags and shouting slogans.

“Priyanka was surprised. She beckoned to Abhishek and asked him which class he studied in,” said Amit Chandra, a local Congress worker.

Even the bigger leaders were impressed. Akhilesh Pratap Singh, the chief spokesperson for the state Congress, couldn’t stop speaking of Priyanka’s “strange encounter with the child leader”.

A Congress release, issued yesterday, described the incident and drew the Indira parallel, outlining the activities of both “Indira Gandhi’s children’s brigade” and “Abhishek’s Bal (Junior) Congress”.

“Pleasantly surprised by the boy’s story,” the release said, “Priyanka Gandhi Vadra informed Abhishek that her children would visit Rae Bareli soon. When they did, they would become members of his Bal Congress.”

Priyanka’s children Raihan and Miraya, born in 2000 and 2002, are in junior school. They had accompanied their mother to Rae Bareli during the 2006 (bypoll) and 2007 (Assembly) campaigns. They last visited the region with Rahul Gandhi last year to watch a cricket tournament in Amethi.