Rahul Gandhi visits Youth Congress camp in UP

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi once again took the Uttar Pradesh police by surprise, when he landed in Lucknow on Thursday afternoon unannounced, drove to a Youth Congress camp and flew back to Delhi a few hours later.

Echoing her objections against such visits by the Congress leader, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati once again sought to draw the Union government's attention to repeated violation of all protocol by the Gandhi scion.

Even state Congress leaders as well as organisers of the Youth Congress camp were clueless about the visit until a local TV channel flashed a brief clipping showing Gandhi's arrival at the Lucknow airport.

Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari was addressing a press conference at the Congress state headquarters when they learnt about Rahul's sudden arrival. They were however able to catch up with him only at the airport when he returned to take a chartered flight back to Delhi.

Rahul Gandhi spent about two hours at the Youth Congress camp, where the participants were really charmed by his visit.

Interestingly, moving quietly in a three-car motorcade, when he reached the gates of the Anandi Water Park on the city outskirts, Gandhi

chose to step out of his vehicle and walk inside to the camp.

"There could not have been a more pleasant surprise for us than having Rahul Gandhi come all the way to see how our camp was going", remarked a young participant after Rahul's departure.

While he disappointed the media by not sparing a minute for the huge press contingent hovering around the Anandi Water Park, where the camp was being held, Rahul did address the participants. He exhorted them to gear themselves up for the 2012 state assembly elections in UP.

"I can assure you that I will be devoting more time to UP in the months to come, but what is more important is that every Congress worker and the youth activist in particular get into the gear to bring the party back at the helm of affairs in this state where it was badly needed ", he was stated to have told the participants.