When union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma was booed in Rahul Gandhi's presence in his constituency in Gonda during the campaign, I asked a senior journalist friend who belongs to the city if he found it surprising. ‘No,’ he said matter-of-factly. “Had Rahul not been there, Beni would possibly have been roughed up,” he added.

The poll results have reflected the same sentiment. Verma's son Rakesh lost his election while Congress candidates lost all the five assembly seats in Gonda district.

Verma, propped up as the leader of kurmis in UP, was welcomed in the Congress-fold with respect and high hopes. He was projected to be the political pundit of Team Rahul in UP. But that perhaps was his image in the national media and of course in 10, Janpath, which also offered him a union ministry for his yeoman service in the Congress’s embattled campaign in the state. The ground realities remained starkly different all along.

Verma lost touch with people in his own home district Barabanki long ago, let alone Gonda or anywhere else in UP. However, the outdated leader with a corroded political base skillfully tricked the Congress into believing in his efficacy and got a union ministry in return. If a lion who walks with a limp and has a broken jaw still gets his share, shame is on the prey.

Verma isn’t the only matador who dealt with the bull from 12 Tughlaq Road (Rahul's Delhi residence) with some finesse. Mayawati’s former principal secretary PL Punia, projected to be the Congress’s ace for drawing dalit votes in UP, also wrangled the chairmanship of the prestigious national commission for scheduled castes (NCSC) from the Congress leadership. The Punjab-born bureaucrat-turned-politician’s effectiveness as reflected in the poll results shows Punia is the gainer. At least, he got the NCSC chairmanship! All the six Congress candidates in the Barabanki district, from where Punia is himself an MP, just got the rout and nothing else. (The Samajwadi Party claimed all the six seats of here.)

But among those who got high perks from the Congress for lending their indispensable services, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh takes the cake. Just before the UP assembly elections, his party struck a deal with the Congress in UP and got the high-flying civil aviation ministry in return. His party just managed to win nine seats in the state this time. Even by his own standards (RLD got 10 seats in 2007 assembly polls and 15 in the 2004 polls), it is a poor performance.

After an exhaustive campaign in UP, Rahul Gandhi has some tough lessons to learn. The china shop he had set came at high cost and needed just one touch to fall and shatter into pieces. The truth of these peoples' leaders was never far from the people but 10, Janpath and 12 Tughlaq Road remained blissfully ignorant of this and spent fortunes on their maintenance. It’s time, I guess, the Congress’s first family started spending their summer vacations in their Amethi house. At least, the future generations will know their china well.