‘Call Me Rahul’: Congress President Wins Hearts at Chennai College

“‘Rahul’ naam toh suna hi hoga.”

Rahul Gandhi at Stella Maris College for Girls in Chennai.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@INCIndia+ ANI)

During his visit to Chennai for pre-election campaign, Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressed first-time millennial voters from various colleges and universities at Stella Maris College for Girls on Wednesday, 13 March.

His mandate to those participating in Q&A rounds with him was to only ask him ‘difficult questions.’

When a girl from the finance department addressed him as ‘sir’ while posing one such ‘difficult question’, the Congress president interrupted her and requested that she address him as ‘Rahul’ instead of ‘sir’.

Watch how that went down.

No sooner had the words escaped his mouth, the crowd erupted in cheers. Azra from Department of Finance – as she identifies herself later in the same clip – took a few breaks to rephrase her question to ‘Rahul’ and each time she had to wait for the cheering to die down.

The video has since gone viral with many commenting on how it was ‘pretty cool’ of him to get on first-name basis with his supporters and possible voters.

While the video doesn’t show her asking the actual question, several curious netizens wondered what the question was and how Rahul fared in his response.

If you are curious too, this is what she asked Rahul.

“The question I have for you, Rahul, is that the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research faced huge funding problems.”

Azra, Student, Stella Maris College for Girls in Chennai

"We are convinced India is spending less on education, our target is 6 percent. It is not only about spending money on education, but also independence on education. All our educational institutions should be able to challenge us... I want you all to make me uncomfortable," Rahul Gandhi replied, as reported by NDTV.

It should be noted that Rahul Gandhi had given his usual formals a miss, and attended the gathering at Stella Maris college wearing a pair of jeans and a casual T-shirt.

The general election will begin from 11 April, and the competing parties are giving their all in the last leg of campaigning. A key focus for the candidates are the first-time voters – especially, the 18 to 22-year-old millennials.

As an obvious effort to connect with a young audience, candidates across parties are chucking their formal parliamentary ways and opting for a more casual, maybe even millennial approach, to their campaign.

Who will end up winning over these young voters? We’ll find out on 23 May.