Cot in the act

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's khat sabha, literally charpoy meetings, was meant to launch the Congress campaign for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Event organisers had laid out hundreds of cots across a field in eastern UP's Deoria district for Gandhi's interaction with farmers. As soon as Gandhi and other Congress leaders left the venue, villagers thronged the place to carry the cots home. People fought and jostled with each other to take possession of the charpoys, overshadowing the main event. The Congress had arranged 10,000 cots for Gandhi's campaign across 233 of UP's 403 Assembly constituencies over the next month. The khat sabha is believed to be a brainchild of election strategist Prashant Kishor. During the 2014 Lok Sabha, Kishor had conceptualised Narendra Modi's chai pe charcha events.