Zeenews Bureau
Mumbai: He came, he saw and he conquered Shiv Sena's turf. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's whirlwind four-hour Mumbai visit saw him pulling out money from an ATM, boarding crowded local trains and generating a massive swell of goodwill that swept away the Sena's threats.
He had arrived at around 11 a.m. to a virtual curfew like atmosphere with police on guard to ward off trouble in the face of the Sena's directives to its activists to greet him with black flags on grounds that he had "insulted" Marathi people and Maharashtra.
It was a very different atmosphere when he left a few hours later for Puducherry.
Ignoring protests by Sena,
Rahul took a local train from suburban Andheri to
Dadar in central Mumbai after dropping his plans to visit a
slum in Ghatkopar by a helicopter.
Despite sporadic attempts by Sena activists to create hurdles by waving black flags, staging noisy demonstrations and burning Rahul Gandhi's effigies for his comments on Mumbai belonging to all Indians, the Congress general secretary's trip passed off without any untoward incident.
An SPG protectee, the Congress leader, accompanied by
the newly-appointed Indian Youth Congress president Rajeev
Satav and party MP Jitendra Singh, disembarked at Dadar, a
Shiv Sena stronghold, from where he took another train on
way to Ghatkopar, an eastern suburb.
Prior to that, like any law-abiding citizen, Rahul checked his pockets for some change. Not finding any, he withdrew cash from an ATM near the Andheri station.
The Congress general secretary then stood in queue to buy a ticket and then boarded a Western Railway (WR) local.
Thousands of commuters were pleasantly surprised and even taken aback to see the VVIP in their modest midst. Many jostled to get close to Rahul Gandhi or shake hands with him, giving his security personnel a tough time.
One of his co-passengers Ashok told zeenews about his interaction with Rahul. “It was a pleasant surprise,” he said.
He added,” I feel Rahul is a progressive person.”
Ditto at Dadar from where he took the stairs over a foot overbridge to catch a slow Central Railway (CR) local train to go to Ghatkopar for his next engagement.
At Dadar and Ghatkopar, he was virtually mobbed by the people trying to catch a glimpse of the leader who had challenged the Shiv Sena with his comments on the role of north Indians in protecting Mumbai during the 26/11 terror attacks.
On both trips, Rahul Gandhi was also accompanied by Mumbai Police Commissioner D. Shivanandhan and Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria.
From Ghatkopar, he drove straight to the Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar slums, halting at a large statue of B.R. Ambedkar. There he removed his footwear, garlanded the statue and respectfully bowed in homage to the father of the Indian constitution.
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and others had sweated it out in the heat below a tree, awaiting Rahul Gandhi for over an hour-and-a-half. After all, the leader was scheduled to take a helicopter, not travel on local trains.
It was a political triumph for Rahul Gandhi in the Shiv Sena's own turf.
As many as 342 Shiv Sena
activists, including MLAs and women, were today arrested for
violating prohibitory orders during Rahul visit to
the city.
MLAs Vinod Gosalkar, Dagdu Sakpal, Ravindra Waikar,
MLC Anil Parab and Corporator Rajul Patel were among the
Sainiks who protested at various places against Rahul and
taken into custody, Police Commissioner D Sivanandhan said.
Barring protests by the Sena, no untoward incident was
reported during the Congress MP's visit, he said. The arrested
Sena members were later released on bail.
Over 10,000 police personnel, including Quick Response
Teams, Bomb Disposal and Detection Squads and State Reserve
Police Force men were deployed to ensure foolproof security
for Rahul, who was in the financial capital for the first
time after becoming the Congress general secretary.
Sivanandhan had issued an order under Section 37(3) of
the Bombay Police Act prohibiting assembly or procession for
preservation of the public order.
The order was issued based on information that Sena
activists would try to disrupt the 39-year-old MP's programmes
for his "Mumbai for all" remarks made in Bihar a few days ago.
Home Minister R R Patil praised the police for
handling the law and order effectively.
-Agencies inputs
First Published: Saturday, February 06, 2010, 00:21