New Delhi: The Congress received a drubbing in the Gandhi pocketboroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, winning a grand total of 0 out of a total 10 assembly seats in the two districts.
In the 2017 state assembly elections, the BJP had bagged six of these seats and the Congress-Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance had won four; of these the Congress had claimed two: Rae Bareli and Harchandpur.
The Congress MLAs from both these seats, Aditi Singh from Rae Bareli and Rakesh Singh from Harchandpur, have since moved to the BJP and contested these elections on BJP tickets.
Aditi Singh has won the Rae Bareli seat by a margin of 7,175 votes, while Rakesh Singh from Harchandpur lost to Samajwadi Party’s Rahul Rajpoot by 14,489 votes.
While addressing a rally in Amethi in December 2021, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said: “This is my home.” That was his second visit to his erstwhile Lok Sabha constituency since the 2019 elections, in which he faced a crushing defeat at the hands of the BJP’s Smriti Irani.
Rahul’s defeat meant that, for the first time in 20 years, the Congress party, or the Gandhis, would not be representing the seat in the Lok Sabha. Rahul managed to enter the Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Wayanad, the second constituency he had contested from. His mother Sonia Gandhi, now the Congress’ interim president, however, managed to hold on to the Rae Bareli seat.
Now, the Congress has been completely wiped out of these two districts in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.
It is said in UP that even though the Congress has not been in government in the state for over three decades, Rae Bareli-Amethi will always connect the party and its first family to the state.
However, speaking to ThePrint, a former Congress leader from the district, who has shifted to the BJP, says otherwise. And they have the numbers to support their claim.
Compared to six seats last time, the BJP in leading in 4 seats this time, down by two. The SP is leading in six.
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Congress rebels emerge victorious for BJP/lose their seats
Aditi Singh, the Congress MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar seat, moved to the BJP in November 2021, ostensibly after a fallout with the Gandhis, and was given a ticket from the same seat by the BJP.
Aditi is the daughter of Akhilesh Singh, a former Congressman who held the Rae Bareli Sadar seat for almost two decades beginning 1993. However, all through his tenure as a politician, Akhilesh Singh, known as a local Robinhood of sorts in Rae Bareli, had a hot and cold relationship with the party and the Gandhis. While he won the seat for the party in all elections from 1993 to 2002, he quit the Congress thereafter and won the 2007 election as an Independent. In the 2012 elections, the last one he contested, he stood as a candidate from the Peace Party of India, and won then too.
Due to her father’s failing health, Aditi took up the mantle in 2017, and managed to win from Rae Bareli Sadar seat in spite of the BJP wave. However, from then onwards, till the time she finally quit the party, Aditi very publicly defied the party line and was censured.
Against her, the Congress fielded Manish Singh Chauhan — a doctor with a clean image and political lineage, but considered a weak candidate — this election. However, according to party sources, the decision was made keeping in mind the SP candidate, R.P. Yadav.
Since the constituency is dominated by Brahmin, Kayasth, Muslim and Other Backward Class (OBC) voters, the Congress functioned under the impression that fielding a Chauhan in what may become a Thakur-versus-Yadav contest would split the upper caste votes that Aditi was looking to corner.
However, Aditi’s vote bank, much like that of her father’s, consists of non-Yadav OBCs as well as Muslims, apart from upper caste Hindus. Moreover, the criminal record of R.P. Yadav seemed to have worked in her favour as she made it a talking point throughout her campaign.
“Our sole aim here is to defeat Aditi Singh, even if it comes at the cost of losing the seat to the Samajwadi Party,” a district functionary of the Congress in Rae Bareli told ThePrint.
Given the results, that gamble seems to have paid off.
The other high-profile Congress turncoat who contested this election on a BJP ticket is the erstwhile ‘Raja of Amethi’ Sanjay Sinh.
Sinh was fielded by the BJP from Amethi Sadar constituency, which was won by the BJP last time as well.
The 2017 assembly election saw an interesting battle in Amethi when Sinh’s estranged wife contested against his present wife. At the time, his first wife Garima won the seat on a BJP ticket, while his present wife Ameeta, who stood on a Congress ticket and who he also campaigned for, placed fourth.
Thereafter, Sinh himself contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Sultanpur against BJP’s Maneka Gandhi and lost. Both he and Ameeta then shifted to the BJP.
This is the first time in over 30 years that 70-year-old Sinh has contested the state polls. Meanwhile, the Congress pitted BJP turncoat Ashish Shukla against Sinh. However, his chief competitor in the seat was SP’s Maharaji Prajapati, wife of former SP leader Gayatri Prajapati, who was sentenced to life in a rape case last year.
Maharaji Prajapati of the SP won the Amethi seat by a margin of 18,096 seats, beating Sanjay Sinh.
Congress’ Ashish Shukla got only 14,080 votes.
But, speaking to ThePrint before the results were declared Sinh said that the reason for the Congress’ annihilation from their prized bastion was the high command’s preference for “what they want” as opposed to “what the party wants”.
“When leaders of the party, be it Rahul, Priyanka or Sonia, can’t connect to the people, this is what happens,” he added.
“We started our politics with the Congress for a reason. But if I’m a political man, then I have to also see what connection my electorate has with the party. When the party’s connect with the public is over, then what is the point of the Gandhis?,” Sinh further said.
Finally, Rakesh Singh, the sitting Congress MLA from Harchandpur in Rae Bareli district who too had shifted sides to the BJP and contested on the party’s ticket this time, lost to the SP’s Rahul Rajpoot.
Way ahead for Congress in Rae Bareli & Amethi
With Sonia Gandhi and her parliamentary seat being the only political representation that the Congress now has from the region, the party is looking at a rejig before the next Lok Sabha polls.
Priyanka Gandhi, who helmed the party’s campaign in the state this time around, has also announced that she will be setting up base in UP. Party functionaries in the state say that Priyanka has already planned trips to the two districts at the end of this month.
“As soon as polling got over, all political parties stopped work in UP. But look at Priyanka Gandhi. She conducted a programme for the party in the state even on 8 March for Women’s Day,” Deepak Singh, a Congress leader from Amethi and a member of the legislative council (MLC) in Uttar Pradesh, told ThePrint.
“By the end of this month, she (Priyanka) would have visited Amethi and Rae Bareli again. We have also reshuffled our organisation in these areas. She’s clear that, from now, till 2024, programmes and campaigns of some sort — big or small — will continue in these two districts. She will also continue to make visits to improve ground connect. The party will be focusing on these two districts like it used to before,” he added.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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