True, a Samajwadi Party spokesman overshot the mark by arguing that a chai-wallah cannot become prime minister. But a more self-assured person would have laughed off the silly remark which Modi initially did by saying that he only sold tea, not the country. His pointing of fingers at unnamed conspirators suggests that he has begun to feel the heat, especially since crowds have not always been as large as he expected, as in several Madhya Pradesh towns recently.
For Rahul Gandhi, the gatherings have generally been below par, especially in a Delhi locality where groups of women even began to leave - in search of drinking water, as chief minister Sheila Dikshit explained. It has been no different in the case of Sonia Gandhi.
What the unsatisfactory turnouts indicate is that the dynasty has lost much of its earlier appeal. Yet, the Congress has no alternative but to depend on the party's first family because there is no one else in the organization who can enthuse the audience - neither Manmohan Singh nor any of his cabinet colleagues.
