Rajesh Masalewala’s wife Chandrama Devi registered her third consecutive victory, retaining her post as head of the Amethi nagar panchayat in Amethi.
New Delhi: The political slugfest over Rahul Gandhi losing the civic polls in his family pocket borough of Amethi did grave injustice to another fledgling local dynasty from Amethi town – that of Rajesh Masalewala.
First, the facts. There was no big surprise at the Amethi civic polls. The winner Chandrama Devi registered her third consecutive victory, retaining a post as head of the Amethi nagar panchayat. She beat her closest rival by 1,035 votes.
The only difference is she switched to the BJP from Samajwadi Party this time. And also, the Congress did not officially contest, just like in the past.
Chandrama is the wife of Rajesh Agrahari, better known as Rajesh Masalewala. Agrahari is among the biggest employers in Amethi city and has single-handedly maintained his dominion against the might of the Nehru-Gandhi parivaar.
Agrahari’s flagship product Rajesh Masala is quite a success in Uttar Pradesh’s competitive local spice market. His factory in Amethi employs around 1,200 people, which makes his both influential and popular.
“Anyone who comes to me for a job, I try to employ them in my factory depending upon their educational qualification,” he told ThePrint.
It was Mulayam Singh Yadav, who spotted him first, asking him to contest the 2007 assembly elections. He did, but lost.
Agrahari realised, however, that his family’s strength lay within town precincts. So, in the same year he fielded his wife for the civic polls and she won. And since then, no one has managed to dislodge his family.
“I earn enough in my business and don’t need more money,” he said, when asked about how the important is the clout to him in his business.
While his wife won again in 2012, the year also saw the rise of another local leader Gayatri Prajapati, who started out as a government contractor and went on to become a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government.
“Stories of his corruption became rampant. Whenever I complained to Mulayam Singh-ji or Akhilesh-ji, I was ignored,” Agrahari told ThePrint while trying to explain his reasons for moving to the BJP.
In December 2014, he took the plunge after BJP’s stupendous victory in the general elections. He joined the party in the presence of Smriti Irani in Amethi.
“Didi has been supportive in my work and she is serious about development of Amethi,” he asserts.
Interestingly, in 2012, his wife Chandrama Devi won by a bigger margin of 1,800 votes. Agrahari says this was due to higher number of contestants this time.