When the dust settled, the workers realised that this was the only high point of the day-long camp for poll agents organised ``to prepare the workers for handling the coming elections''.

The workers of five assembly constituencies of Karol Bagh were scheduled to meet at the venue at 8 am to begin the day-long affair which was to end at 5 pm. The organisers soon realised that the timing was perhaps a bit too ambitious: The event started at around 11 am and ended prematurely at 3 pm.``The leaders who spoke were very brief,'' said a Congress worker sheepishly, explaining the early winding up of the `training'.

The lack of enthusiasm was too obvious to ignore. Even as the speakers promised 10 Youth Congress workers each at the 650 booths in the constituency, there were just about 500 workers on the grounds at the peak of the meeting.

Navin Aggarwal sat in the last row. He was one among the few who did not wear the Congress T-shirt. ``The mood is very buoyant but it is all very motivated. They have their own candidates to support and this is just a show of strength. It would be a miracle if this mood continues when their candidates do not get the ticket,'' he said.

There is a converse argument put forth by the organisers.

``But if Congress comes to power that is enough, every worker will wield some power,'' said Amit Kumar, one of the younger recruits.

Also present at the occasion was Oscar Fernandes, who called for the youth of the country to promote integrity. ``Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Sheila Dikshit could not come because she had to attend an urgent meeting,'' justified a Congressman. Just a few kilometres away, she was at a press conference with H.K.L. Bhagat on Talkatora Road.

The only silver lining was that unlike most of the public meetings, this one did not lead to a traffic jam on the arterial Shanker Road. It started and ended rather subtly.