People or cameras, Yadav plays to all

SOHNA: At the panchayat bhawan in Bhondsi, barely a 20-minute drive from Gurgaon, there was an air of expectancy. In a few minutes, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Yogendra Yadav was to arrive here. A group of village elders sat under the shade of the verandah, poring over an AAP pamphlet recently distributed among them.
"Elections happen every five years," an old man read out loud. "But this election will be different." Usually, the pamphlet went on to say, elections are about new faces at the helm but same old policies."But in Haryana, even the faces don't change. Till yesterday these faces belonged to Congress, and today they have become BJP's bedfellows."
"You see, they are hinting at Inderjit Singh," the eldest man at the Panchayat Bhawan said, referring to the pamphlet. "Why don't they criticize Congress as much? Why only target BJP?"
Some people around laughed, and a voice addressing the old man, said, "Why don't you say this directly to Yogendra Yadav? He's coming now." To which the man responded, "I will say it to him directly. I'm not scared of anyone." But when Yadav finally arrived, there was barely any time to exchange words. Not much was said, only handshakes and smiles. In his short stint as a political campaigner, Yadav seems to have mastered these token gestures. Each time he meets someone, he puts on a radiant smile - which vanishes as swiftly as it had appeared - and proffers a two-handed handshake.
"It's difficult to tell who's going to win at the moment. But I became an AAP follower ever since Yogendra Yadav joined the party," said Nathu Singh, an elderly resident of Maruti Kunj.
The next stop for the campaigners was the Sohna market - a stronghold of traders and small businesses - an important demographics for politician from Gurgaon. And this was where the fanfare also arrived. Topi-clad AAP supporters went at Yadav with garlands, one after the other. More than a dozen garlands later, Yadav took the whole bunch off and handed it over to an assistant, looking relieved.
An AAP volunteer, who is campaigning with Yadav, said that every day he begins at 7am, and ends after midnight. There are innumerable public meetings or jan sabhas and interviews, and to be able to conduct as many pad yatras stretching for kilometres, you require nothing less than athletic prowess.
Does all this get a little tiring at times? "Well, it's all right," Yadav said with a shrug, and went forward, all smiles, to greet another supporter.