Rahul Gandhi hopped on and off two suburban trains, signed autographs for co-passengers, chatted with college students and flew out of Mumbai after completing a visit the Shiv Sena had warned him not to undertake.
He also withdrew some cash from an ATM in Andheri, an action that Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray complained demonstrated how outsiders were taking Mumbai?s money away to Delhi.
The AICC general secretary jettisoned plans to fly by helicopter from Vile Parle to Vikhroli to meet residents of a slum in Ghatkopar after completing an engagement with college students, unexpectedly stopping at Andheri railway station, where he hopped on to a second class compartment of a Virar-Dadar fast local.
He got off around 15 minutes later at Dadar, the Sena?s traditional stronghold in Mumbai, at 1.15 pm, where he crossed an overbridge to the central line. He got into a first class compartment of a Kalyan-bound local, and got off at Ghatkopar, which is four stations away, a railway official said.
On the trains, Rahul signed autographs for fellow passengers and chatted with them as they clicked his pictures.
Apart from the SPG, he was accompanied by newly-appointed Indian Youth Congress president Rajeev Satav and party MP Jitendra Singh on the four-hour visit, following which he flew to Puducherry.
At the interaction with students in Vile Parle, Rahul said, ?My father was born in Mumbai and mother in Italy. My great-grandfather was born in Allahabad, who also had origins in Jammu and Kashmir. I live in Delhi. Where should I say I belong to? I know one thing that I am an Indian and belong to India.?
The Sena has been making vicious personal attacks on Rahul since he said in Patna earlier this week that Mumbai belongs to all Indians. But, he did not mention the Sena or the Thackerays by name on Friday.
