The rath is carved out of an air-conditioned luxury bus, a replica of the chariots used by such mavericks as Chaudhary Devi Lal and N T Rama Rao for their election campaigns. It glides to a halt at an election meeting. The audience waits.
Suddenly, a makeshift podium with a canopy emerges from the middle of the rath through a hydraulic lift. Standing in the centre, a scene which is a cross between something out of the Mahabharata and Star Wars, is caretaker Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
He raises his hands and tells the crowd to break the barricades and come closer to the rath.