On his way to the Divisional Commissioner’s office on Friday, Rahul spent his time on road chatting with passers by while scores of farmers waited to be identified before they could be let in. Rahul stopped one athlete going for his coaching class on his tracks and rightly guessed his sport — boxing. He spent the next few moments trading punches with the surprised youngster, much to the amusement of the crowd.

“He asked me to show a cross-right punch. While I was delivering hooks, he corrected me. He seems to know the game. He suggested me to graduate to bantam weight from my lightweight category,” Imran Khan, a student of Christian Inter College, told reporters after his chat with Gandhi. Khan said Rahul also asked him to punch harder.

Later Gandhi went inside the buses ferrying the farmers and assured them that he would be back if the administration does not accede to their demands in a month.