For days, Congress leaders and workers in Amethi and Rae Bareli have been clamouring for Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi to be fielded from these Nehru-Gandhi pocket boroughs.
Some of them claimed to see a sliver of hope on Thursday — a day ahead of the May 3 deadline for filing nominations from either seat.
Local Congress leaders claimed that party panchayat representatives had been asked to bring people in tempos to road shows that, they said, Rahul and Priyanka would be holding from 11am on Friday in Amethi and Rae Bareli, respectively.
Officially, the party leadership kept mum.
Speaking off the record, a local Congress leader said: “Rahul and Priyanka will hold road shows before submitting their nomination papers.”
The local Congress leader cited what he believed was a clear indication: “Priyanka had a road show scheduled in Fatehpur Sikri on Friday but it has been cancelled. We have been asked to arrange for successful road shows here.”
Government sources said the CRPF had booked several rooms in two hotels, one in Amethi and the other in Rae Bareli. The central agency provides security to the Nehru-Gandhis.
K.C. Kaushik, an advocate associated with the Congress in Delhi, and Manoj Muttu, a friend and business associate of the Nehru-Gandhis, arrived in Rae Bareli on Thursday. K.L. Sharma, Sonia Gandhi’s representative, had arrived in Rae Bareli on Wednesday and met party leaders from the twin constituencies.
Even some self-confessed RSS supporters suggested they would vote for Rahul and Priyanka if they contested from Amethi and Rae Bareli.
“The Congress will win with a huge margin from both seats if Priyanka and Rahul contest. The entire area is ready to make them victorious,” said Ram Naresh Pandey, a rich farmer from Aihar village in Rae Bareli.
“But we will vote for the BJP in both constituencies if anyone else from the Congress is fielded.”
Several issues of the Panchjanya, a weekly magazine published by the RSS, were stacked on Pandey’s table.
“Yes, I attend an RSS shakha every day, and most people who gather there agree with me: any Congress candidate other than Priyanka and Rahul will forfeit their deposit,” he said.
“The local people have realised one thing — that development will take place only when members of the Nehru-Gandhi family represent these two constituencies and the Congress has a government at the Centre.”
Rahul was Amethi MP for 15 years from 2004 before Smriti Irani defeated him in 2019. Sonia represented Rae Bareli from 2004 to 2024 before moving to the Rajya Sabha.
Chandra Prakash, a farmer from Tikra in Rae Bareli, said: “Modi inaugurated an over-bridge and a road between Rae Bareli and Fatehpur (part of the Tanda-Banda National Highway) on December 16, 2018, and announced that the travel time would be reduced substantially.
“But it developed cracks within six months. Since then the road has been blocked. Not a single officer or contractor has been punished for using substandard material.”
Asked why people in Rae Bareli want a Nehru-Gandhi as their MP, Banshi Dhar, a dhaba owner in Aihar, said: “They are large-hearted and don’t behave with the meanness that is the calling card of BJP leaders.Just one example will suffice to prove this.
“There is the Sri Ganesh Vidyalaya Intermediate College in our village, founded by the then MLA, Mahavir Prasad Pandey, in 1955 in the name of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, a journalist and freedom fighter. A line written in Hindi on the gate, above the name of the school, said: ‘Amar shaheed shraddheya Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthiji ki punya smriti me sthapit (Founded in the memory of martyr Ganesh Shankar Vidyarathi)’.
“Last year, some RSS and BJP workers turned up with some education department officers and removed this line from our boards. Since then, they have been pressuring the school management to install an idol of Lord Ganesh on the compound and declare that the school is named after Lord Ganesh. People here are opposing the move.”
Rae Bareli and Amethi vote on May 20.
