LUCKNOW: The cycle rickshaw stood out among the SUVs. But, Maniram cycled confidently forward, elbowing the chief minister’s car outside its designated spot under the porch. For now, it was his moment in the spotlight at 5 Kalidas Marg , the official residence of UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.Maniram’s passenger was Vijay Shekhar Sharma , chief executive of India’s largest mobile commerce platform, visiting the CM hours after the Yash Bharti award was conferred on him. With his car stuck in a heavy traffic jam, the only way he was going to get to the CM on time was astride Maniram’s rickshaw.The rest, as they say, is history. Maniram, the rickshaw puller from Tiloi, Rae Bareli was quizzed by the CM about his house, his family, children, the money he earns in a day, and where he stays in the city. Two hours later, he rode out of the CM’s bungalow richer by Rs 6,000, riding a brand new rickshaw fixed up for him on instructions of the CM, and with the promise of Samajwadi pension for his wife, an e-rickshaw, and residential quarters in Lucknow. He said, “I was smoking near Kalidas marg when I was hailed by the passenger. I don’t know who he was. I thought I’d drop him at the gate of the big bungalow I had seen but never entered, but they asked me to drive straight in. Then I saw Mukhya Mantri Akhilesh bhaiyya and I told him everything.”Three days before the festival is celebrated, it’s a cracker of a Diwali already, for Maniram.