The helicopter she used was another attraction for the crowds.

Sonia's Hindi has improved. And despite her Anglicised accent, even tribals and villagers were able to follow her. Though she was reading from a prepared text, she did not falter, even while naming local leaders. The use of the honourific ji for each one of them put the crowds on her wavelength.

``I like the way she speaks. Even he way she covers her head with the saree shows that she is one of us,'' said Mathur Turi of Der village, at the Patan meeting.

There was also the touch of how the late Indira Gandhi conducted herself. Sonia adjusted her saree with a practised ease, inviting the comparison. ``Sasu jevo raj karse (She will rule like her mother-in-law,'' a couple of spectators said.

There were many gullible ones too. Sabar Rupa from Halgi village, was bewildered. He said he had in fact come to see a movie. And Chiman Dantani, who had seen her many times on television, was full of adoration. ``This is what is known as darshan,'' he said.

At the Godhra meeting, she shared the rostrum with Shankersinh Vaghela, Shantilal Patel, and Dahod MP Somji Damor. And at the Patan meeting she was with Gujarat Congress president C.D. Patel, party candidate for Patan seat Praveen Rashtrapal, Mehsana's Congress candidate Atmaram Patel, and former state home minister Vipul Choudhary.

But it was Sonia who commanded rapport. Her eight-minute speech in Patan was heard with rapt attention. And at the Godhra meeting, Aratsinh Hirabhai and others who came to hear her called her ``Soniadevi''. If the crowds' response was anything to go by, her Italian origin is forgotten. For Mulabhai Vankar, it did not matter: ``These BJP people say she's Italian. We don't think so. Anyone will look fair if he stays indoors for long.'' The crowds in Godhra was in part brought in from nearby areas like Dahod and Chhotaudepur and Kapadvanj constituencies. With promises for some, Rs 50 for others. ``I don't understand Hindi. I had come to see her,'' confessed young Laxman Suresh.

``Maa jevi laage chhe. (She looks like a mother.)'' There was nothing new in what she said. She spoke about her ``family's sacrifices, the murder of Mahatma Gandhi's ideology in the very land he was born; use of religion by the BJP, its bad track record against tribals, Dalits and minorities'' and how ``their politics is based on opportunism and falsehood''. But they heard her in rapt attention.

The Congress, it seems, has been able to take the wind out of BJP's attack on Sonia's foreign origins. Before the Godhra meeting, Ravibhai Solanki, who had come to hear her speak, asked, ``Where was Advani born? Even if my wife were to hail from other country, she would be Indian after marriage.''