India, Aug. 18 -- A look into history is necessary to answer Rahul Gandhi's quest to renew the Congress bond with Prayagraj, his ancestral hometown where today the Kumbh seems to overshadow the city's academic and political vigour. Allahabad, now known as Prayagraj and the home of the Nehru family, was a centre of the Indian independence movement for years. Strategies evolved here. It was also known as the City of Prime Ministers because several of them were either born or educated here. Concurrently, Allahabad became a Congress bastion. From the first Lok Sabha election in 1952 to 1984, seven of the eight Allahabad MPs belonged to the Congress- Sri Prakash, Purshottam Das Tandon, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Hari Kishan Shastri, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, VP Singh and cine star Amitabh Bachchan. The only exception was socialist Janeshwar Mishra who had won the 1977 Lok Sabha polls on a Janata Party ticket. After four decades, the Congress won the prestigious Allahabad Lok Sabha seat in 2024, with Ujjwal Singh, son of Samajwadi Party leader Reoti Raman Singh, winning on a Congress ticket as part of the SP-Cong alliance. Between 1984-2019, the BJP won the seat four times, Janata Dal twice and the Jan Morcha and the Samajwadi Party once each. Alongside, the crowds at Nehru's ancestral home Anand Bhavan and adjacent Swaraj Bhavan also started declining. Indira Gandhi shifted base to New Delhi after entering national politics and later handed over the sprawling Anand Bhavan to the government in 1970. It was converted into a museum. The Congress first exited from Prayagraj politics and thereafter from the state's and national power scene as their sporadic rallies and meetings failed to give the party the desired impetus there. Now, the huge response at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's youth outreach programme, 'Chhatron ki Goonj', in Prayagraj on August 8 has raised hopes as many feel their days of glory are not far away. This is not the first time when a Congress rally attracted such a huge crowd despite roadblocks put up by the state government. Only the design and the theme of the rally was more appealing to Gen Z. Prayagraj is also a centre of education with a high level of academic consciousness and is often called the Oxford of East, which draws students from across the state as well as the country. The students dominated the public space and they loved the new style of the rally - akin to a political rock show where there is dialogue instead of dull and drab speeches- with a focus on youth and their issues. It's the vision of Gen Z in the family and party, even though the event was organised by a Mumbai company. During his recent visit, Rahul Gandhi, along with his niece Miraya Vadra, spent some hours at their ancestral home Anand Bhavan and gave an emotional start to his speech saying, "My family had a home in Prayagraj, so coming here always feels special." The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party saw an opportunity to embarrass the Gandhis as Rahul did not visit his grandfather Feroze Gandhi's grave, located in a Parsi cemetery in Mumfordgang area of Prayagraj. Feroze died in 1960, and after his cremation, his ashes were interred at a Parsi cemetery. A day before, the BJP leaders paid floral tributes, insisting that they were also ensuring its upkeep. Prayagraj is high on BJP's agenda in view of the upcoming Vidhan Sabha polls. In 2017, the BJP had won 13 of the 22 seats in the Allahabad region, while its ally Apna Dal had won three leaving two for the BSP, one each for the SP and the Congress. In 2022, the SP won 10, the BJP 8, its ally AD(S) 2, Jansatta Dal 2. CongrThe region, comprising the three districts of Pratapgarh, Kaushambi and Prayagraj, was home to the slain mafia don Atiq Ahmed and chief minister Yogi Adityanath is credited with ending his reign of terror. Now that the euphoria is subsiding, the party leadership is haunted by one question: Will the crowds convert into votes? The party's concern is that even though Rahul has emerged as the viable face of the Congress and now the youth, he also represents one ideology in a vertically divided society, but where were the cadres to convert the crowds into votes. People recall how Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's "Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon" campaign, launched from the adjoining Chitrakoot in November 2021, delivered only a single seat in the 2022 assembly polls. It disappointed those who were demanding Priyanka Gandhi's entry into electoral politics as she resembled Indira Gandhi, had put up hoardings, while she was concentrating on Rae Bareli and Amethi. Sonia Gandhi's rallies in 2009 and 2014 got huge responses and poor votes. Old timers recall the personal bond Nehru and Indira used to enjoy with the people of the city, so much so that the rickshaw- puller could be heard mockingly claiming, "Hum toh Nehru ko bhi tehelwaye (we took around Nehru the city)." Indira, as Congress city president, knew the town like the back of her hand. Even after becoming PM, she used to interact with the common man. Once, she went to the Kamla Nehru Hospital and had a half-an-hour unscheduled meeting with nurses and midwives. The Gandhis' visits, over the years, became less frequent. Sonia Gandhi had last visited in 2016 for Indira Gandhi's birth centenary celebrations when she had met the local leaders. Rahul has been in politics for long but has so far failed to turnaround the party's fortunes in his ancestors' home, where history lives. People feel a shift in student-driven politics of the city but the seniors are still putting bets on Modi-Yogi....