RG4India

In 1999, Rahul Gandhi, then 29, accompanied his mother Sonia Gandhi to a Congress party rally in Hisar, Haryana. While the leaders sat on the stage, Rahul was a bystander, preferring to absorb the hustings' atmospherics. Barely was the rally underway, he was seen lifting a white plastic chair from the crowd and taking it to the stage for Kartari Devi, a Congress legislative party leader who was standing on stage. Empathy is a trait in the Gandhi scion that stands out strongly in his years in public life, but little else in the persona of Rahul, the politician, is clear. In a recent interview with Arnab Goswami, an incisive and loud newscaster, the Congress party vice president was forthright for most parts but that was about it. He came across as inexperienced, with a limited worldview in realpolitik, and as an interviewee lacking in panache, street smarts or the ability to steer a conversation his way - all important ingredients in the making of a politician brand.

"What is Brand Rahul? The pitch is not clear," says Rasheed Kidwai, author and Sonia Gandhi's biographer, who was present at the Haryana rally, and has closely traced the journey of Rahul Gandhi as a politician . "In one-on-one he seems quite on the ball," says a well-followed communications expert, discounting a widely-held view that Rahul is a novice when it comes to getting his ideas across to the public.

A Delhi-based brand consultant, requesting anonymity, describes Rahul as open to new ideas and somebody who comes up with ideas that may seem out-of-the-box but are well thought-out. Almost everyone BT spoke with among those who have worked with Rahul agrees there are layers and layers to the personality of the Congress leader.

Rahul's ad blitz, said in some quarters to top Rs.500 crore in spending, has been written off already by brand experts as half-thought out, irrelevant, disjointed and late in its build-up. "They have successfully managed to keep the youth aspect alive but they are not playing it up enough," says image manager and Founder of Perfect Relations, Dilip Cherian. "He comes across as a young leader who is promising introspective change, while Modi is promising bigger and faster change."