Good size of crowd in Rahul Gandhi’s Mahesana rally

Mahesana: Congress which has been number two political party in Gujarat, like always once again successfully gathered desired size of crowd, enough to fill the ground in Mahesana. Party leaders were very happy for today’s rally as the crowd was big in range of 70,000 to 1 lakh as per their claim. Congress in Gujarat has organized its national party president Sonia Gandhi’s rallies in Mahesana previously in 2001 and also in 2007 and on both occasion it had attracted big crowd of supporters same as today or similar. The party however failed to convert the success of rally-crowd into success in election results.  North Gujarat has sizable number of Thakor community voters who have been largely loyal to Congress. The party won Mahesana Lok Sabha elections in 2004. Congress is ruling party in local municipality, thanks to Patidar quota agitation of last year(the agitation was on peak just before local polls but it has reduced to zero post that).  Congress has sizable support in nearby tribal pockets in Sabarkantha. When Gandhi family leaders come to address rally in Gujarat, they target a region rather than a district. Mobilization for rally therefore is region-wide covering several districts. For number two party, the size of today’s rally was perfect.