AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took by surprise not only the UP government but also the Congressmen during his 180-km drive from Lucknow to a village on the India-Nepal border.

Rahul visited Barabanki, Bahraich and Shrawasti — the places where the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation is planning to promote self-help groups of women in a big way — but none of the Congress MPs representing the area — P L Punia, Kamal Kishore and Vinay Pande — had any inkling of his programme.

Everywhere, Rahul asked the people whether Congressmen had visited them during the recent floods, and if yes, who these Congressmen were and how they helped them. He also asked them about the work being done by the state government and the functioning of the schemes like NREGS and PDS. All the while, he ensured that local Congressmen were not around while he met the people.

Like the government, the Congressmen were also left guessing about his whereabouts till Thursday morning when reports came in that he had spent the night at a village in Shrawasti. “Forget the state government, his visit gave sleepless nights to Congressmen too,” said a senior leader.

State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said, “He wants to get a real picture from the people. Though our MPs are working hard in flood-affected areas, now our people would be more alert all the time.”

On the state government’s objection that it was not informed about his programme in advance, Joshi said, “Mayawati sees Dalits more as her votebank than as human beings. She is more bothered about losing their votes than about their problems. She is disturbed at every visit of Rahul to reach out to the poor.”