Token fight for opponents of Sonia and Rahul in polls

In the pocketborough of the Gandhi-Nehru family, the race for the opponents of the Congress is not to emerge as a winner in the Lok Sabha polls but to get the second position.

The two constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli, which are adjacent, have been the stronghold of the first political family of the country for decades, so much so that for the opponents the result appears to be a foregone conclusion and the electoral battle just a token fight.

While Congress President Sonia Gandhi is contesting her third election from Rae Bareli, her son and AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is contesting his second election from Amethi.

Caste, community, occupational and communal lines have blurred in the two constituencies in the name of what the locals call as "family" and even the opponents admit that it is only "tokenism" when they take on the two heavyweights.

Ironically, in the assembly elections when the Gandhis do not contest, the caste and communal lines again play an important role though the Congress has an upper hand.

In the five assembly segments of Amethi seat, Congress has only three segments under it while the remaining two were shared by SP and BSP. Of the five assembly segments in Rae Bareli, Congress has four MLAs while one is represented by an Independent.

"The curiosity in both the Lok Sabha seats is to know who comes second and what will be the victory margin of the Gandhis," said Ramdhan Singh, a block-level Congress leader from Maharajganj area.

In both the constituencies, SP has not put up any candidate but both BSP and BJP have their nominees in place.

BSP candidate in Amethi Ashish Shukla is campaigning on the issue of "fearless and corruption free administration", something which the people of the constituency are not buying.

Shukla, a former Congressman, left the party when Congress admitted Sanjay Singh and his wife Amrita Singh in the party.

BJP candidate Pradeep Singh is toeing the lines of party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani in his campaign. The presence of both in the constituency is minimal with only Congress flags fluttering atop most of the houses.

Rae Bareli has R B Singh of BJP and R S Kushwaha of BSP to give a fight to Sonia Gandhi.

"We will bring development to the area," says Kushwaha in his public meetings but there is hardly any taker for such promises with the voters enamoured with the "family". 

Rae Bareli has an interesting political past where the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lost the polls to socialist leader Raj Narain in the aftermath of the Emergency in 1977.

She won the seat in the 1980 elections but vacated it, preferring to keep Medak constituency in Andhra Pradesh. In the bye-elections, her nominee Arun Nehru won the polls and retained it in 1984.

Another family nominee Sheila Kaul was given the party nomination in 1989 and 1991, she won both times.

The Congress was at the receiving end in the next two elections in 1996 and 1998 when its candidates Vikram Kaul and Deepa Kaul lost the polls to BJP candidate Ashok Singh.

Tides turned in favour of Congress when Priyanka Gandhi campaigned for the first time in the 1999 elections for party candidate Satish Sharma, ensuring his victory.