Among the young men who have gathered to watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi

at Fatehpur, personal grooming is prominent. Some wear their hair in long styled
locks, at least a few were dandies with bouffants. Aviators or imitations of them
were trending. Before they sat on the dusty red plastic chairs spread out
everywhere, they wiped them gingerly, fussing about their white kurtas or jeans.
Everyone had a cellphone. Everyone took selfies.

The sun was blasting down. At regular intervals, the young men stood on the chairs,
craning their necks, awaiting the PM's helicopter. Patience, urged the warm-up acts
on the stage. The breeze was a fair-weather ally.

pms helicopter arrives fatehpur

UP Election 2017: PM Narendra Modi's arrival was filmed by thousands on their

cellphone cameras

When the helicopter began its descent, the PM's arrival was filmed by thousands of
cellphone cameras, being waved high in the air. Everyone was on their chairs.
"Modi, Modi" - the chant reached higher as if to meet the helicopter, lowering
steadily.

PM Modi spoke for about an hour. On television this morning, he said, he saw Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav talking to reporters after voting in Lucknow. "He started by
saying he would win this election, needed no partner. Then, when it became clear
that both his party and his to-be ally's were sinking, he decided to tie up, and said
the partnership would win. Today, I heard him say he will be the single-largest party.
Kya hua, bhaiya?" he taunted. "We are only on Round 3 (of voting). Already you are
sounding like the game is up."

long hair modi rally fatehpur

UP Election 2017: Supporters at PM Narendra Modi's rally in Fatehpur tried to look

their best.

The PM did not refer to Rahul Gandhi, the Chief Minister's wingman for this election.
But with considerable take-down finesse, he exhibited two political lineaments: a
punishing appraisal of Mr Gandhi and feeding off popular social media topics. So he
referred to the much-forwarded image of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi at their
roadshow in Agra, with the Congress vice-president bending to avoid a tangle of
electricity wires as he rode on a Mercedes SUV with the Chief Minister.
"One ducked as he usually does," the PM said. "As for Akhilesh Yadav, he didn't
need to - he knew the line is dead because there is no electricity anywhere." It was
a crowd-pleaser.

rahul gandhi akhilesh yadav ducking wires

The image of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav ducking to avoid wires was shared
widely on social media.

Despite the unremitting heat, the crowd stayed attentive. The PM stopped regularly
to take off his glasses and wipe his face.

The loudest bursts of approval came when the PM declared "Aap ka pyar mere
saraakhon par", seeking their blessing, and later, when he highlighted his
achievement in getting the rich to surrender their entitlement of subsidising cooking
gas and ensuring free cylinders for the poor, recalling his mother's toiling in a
kitchen. By experience, not by empathy, I understand you, he said, deriding the
previous Congress-led government for failing to introduce the not basic corrections
in a system skewed towards the rich.

He spoke of delivering jobs for the youth of Uttar Pradesh, jobs for which they would
need no connections, have to pay no bribes. "We will not privilege one caste above
another," he said, in an election being closely watched to gauge if the caste
calculus is shelved, as it was in 2014, for the promise of employment, development
and economic empowerment. Implicating Akhilesh Yadav for minority appeasement,
the PM said all religions must be treated equally. "If villages create graveyards,
there must be crematoriums too. If there is bijli (electricity) for Ramzan, it must be
there for Diwali. There must be bijli on both Holi and Eid."

modi rally fatehpur

UP Election 2017: People gathered at PM Narendra Modi's Fatehpur rally took many
selfies

When he talked of providing cheaper medicines and urea, he launched a theme, one
that he kept returning to, with rewarding dividends: "The people who were selling
them on the black market, won't they come after me? Won't they punish me? Who
will protect me?"
"We will, we will," the crowd roared back, some of the young pounding the air with
their fists.

At no point did he mention Mayawati - perhaps an allowance for an alliance, if

needed, after the election, or a wish to avoid alienating the vast Dalit population.

It was at the very end that the PM brought up the notes ban, "the electric shock of
November 8" that has "forced the rich to account for every paisa" in banks. In a
handshake to the traders, a long-time support group of the BJP, PM Modi said it is
not the "small shopkeeper he over-charges a little or holds back a little from the
government" that is the problem. "It is the rich, the powerful, the corruption that we
will settle accounts with" he pledged.

"And when they come for me, when they work to defeat me, who will protect me?"
he asked. Through row after row, in a body electric, the answer rang out: "we will,
we will."