Patna,(BiharTimes): Though the Ramnagar rally of Rahul Gandhi on Saturday evoked a good response the absence of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and chief minister Nitish Kumar, was very much con-spicuous. Not only was the two regional satraps absent even several senior state Congress leaders were not seen on the dais.

Yet the Congress leader managed to pull crowd in the land from where Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagrah over 98 years back.

But Rahul did not give any new message nor did he raise any issue specific to Bihar. This would not have been the case had Nitish or Lalu been there.

By sending youngest son Tejasawi and Janata Dal (United) general secretary K C Tyagi both the leaders showed Rahul Gandhi his place. Till some times back Rahul was trying to maintain distance from Lalu and many Congressmen in Bihar would sneer at him.

Two years back Rahul Gandhi virtually stone-walled the ordinance on convicted politicians. Two days later Lalu Prasad was convicted by the Special CBI court in a fodder scam case.

Even during the last year Lok Sabha poll Rahul was reportedly reluc-tant to haave any truck with the RJD, but he was compelled to do so. After the election the Grand Old Party was virtually decimated.

Initially it appeared that Congress would succeed in befriending Nitish and isolate Lalu, but the chief minister made it clear his preference.

A section of Congress men and women were upset after Swabhiman rally of August 30 as Sonia Gandhi was not given the opportunity to speak last. The last speaker was RJD chief, and the message went that it actually was a Lalu show.

After that Lalu Prasad refused to share dais though state Congress chief Ashok Chaudhary personally went to invite him. Nitish, on the other hand, initially showed his inclination but a couple of days before the September 19 rally to mark the 125th birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar he too declined to attend. Both the leaders took the excuse that they would remain busy in distribution of tickets.

But both RJD and JD(U) do not want to blow this issue out of propor-tion. The two parties said that both Lalu and Nitish would share dais with Rahul and Sonia during the election campaign.

However, there is a consolation for the Congress. Notwithstanding the absence of these two regional leaders the turnout in the rally was good. This was so in spite the fact that Ramnagar is just a block and no big town or city. This would be a bit worrying for the BJP.