Sonia storms Amethi
From Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

SULTANPUR (UTTAR PRADESH), Sept 10 — Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s motorcade today stormed into this eastern Uttar Pradesh town, amidst tight security and a lot of slogan-shouting, making a typically Congress style dramatic arrival. An unbelievable 54 quintals of rose petals were strewn all along the path of Mrs Sonia Gandhi as she arrived here this afternoon to file her nomination papers from the Amethi parliamentary constituency — a traditional stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi family and also of the 115-year-old Congress party.

Minutes after completing the paper work to take on Mr Sanjay Singh, a one time friend of her late husband, but now belonging to the BJP, Mrs Gandhi talked to mediapersons. Asked about her decision to contest from Amethi, she said: "This is my home that is why I am contesting from here." She said she had never called Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee a "Ghaddar" (traitor). Referring to the Lucknow parliamentary seat Mrs Gandhi said: "We will have a winning candidate from there." On the BJP and its tactics of calling her names she added, "Let them do it".

Mrs Gandhi, who is also known among Congress circles the "bahurani" of Amethi, was accompanied by her son Mr Rahul Gandhi, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) chief, Mr Salman Khursheed, Mr Ram Narain Yadav, her personal secretary Mr V. George and a lawyer. Her daughter, Mrs Priyanka Vadra, who arrived in Fursatganj (Amethi), yesterday was not in the party that arrived to file the nomination papers.

The widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi presented her papers before the Returning Officer-cum-District Magistrate, Mr Anurag Srivastva around 2.30 p.m. Her name was proposed by Mr Ram Harsh Singh, the MLA from Amethi. It was seconded by Ms Rajpati Devi, a former MLA from Gauriganj and Mr Shiv Balak Singh, a former MLA from Salon. When it was her turn to sign the papers the Returning Officer, said "You can do it either in English or Hindi."

Amethi is spread over two revenue districts — Sultanpur and Rae Bareli. However, the papers are filed here as Sultanpur is the district headquarters. Just as Mrs Gandhi was to arrive at the typical British-style office of the Returning Officer, more than a hundred mediapersons from all over the country and foreign channels waited for more than 40 minutes. A huge white-coloured balloon shaped like a hand was displayed outside the office of the Returning Officer.

The moment she entered the office, wearing a beige-coloured printed cotton sari and with her head covered, pop went the flashbulbs and the television cameras started rolling. As the shy Rahul Gandhi stayed behind his mother, photographers and cameramen standing right behind the Returning Officer shouted "Rahulji, Rahulji please aage aaiye." The young man, attired in the mandatory white kurta payjama, obliged after a nudge from one of the party workers.

As Mrs Gandhi finished the formalities and moved out, newspersons virtually blocked her way to ask questions while members of the Special Protection Group (SPG), in their grey safari suits, faced a tough time in the sweltering heat to protect the VVIP.

Outside the office the police had made strict arrangements to control the crowds, who waited patiently to catch a glimpse of the celebrity candidate. The supporters, who had blocked the way, were pacified only when Mrs Gandhi’s bullet proof white coloured Ambassador stopped. She opened the door and stepped on the foot board to wave to the crowds, that were all over the place — perched on trees, walls and rooftops of surrounding houses and even on the roofs of some jeeps. It was only after Mrs Gandhi waved out that the crowds allowed the motorcade to move ahead. With the crowds chanting Rahul’s name, he also had to stand alongside his mother. Earlier, Mr Khursheed’s attempts to request the crowd had failed. Later, as the caravan moved towards Lucknow, the mother and son duo had to stop at each road crossing in Sultanpur and wave back to the crowd.

As she went back to Amethi and its five assembly segments for canvassing, it remains to be seen which way this caste-fragmented electorate will sway. The caste structure of this constituency is such that the scheduled castes comprise 31 per cent of the electorate. Brahmins and Ahirs are 12 per cent of the electorate each, Muslim 13 per cent and the powerful Thakurs 8 per cent. Mrs Gandhi’s rival from the BJP is from among the Thakurs.

Sonia visited Amethi only twice: Sanjay
Tribune News Service

SULTANPUR (UP), Sept 10 — The BJP candidate from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, Mr Sanjay Singh today claimed that he would win the seat despite Mrs Sonia Gandhi contesting from here. Mrs Gandhi had visited the constituency only twice since the death of her husband, the late Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, he claimed.

She had lost touch with the voters, Mr Sanjay Singh claimed while talking to newsmen. Besides, he said Amethi was no training ground that Mrs Priyanka Vadra had been sent here to learn about the rough and tumble of Indian politics.

Mrs Priyanka Vadra had been managing her mother's election campaign in the constituency. The BJP candidate, however, said that she would be treated like a daughter since she was the daughter of Rajiv Gandhi. She had landed at the Fursatganj airfield yesterday and since then she has been going around the constituency.

The Amethi constituency was a part of the Musafirkhana constituency in 1957 and 1962. Since 1957, the constituency had gone to the polls (LS) 11 times including one byelection held due to the death of Rajiv Gandhi. In total the Congress has lost only twice. Once in 1977, when the Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) candidate, Mr Ravindra P. Singh defeated the late Sanjay Gandhi. The second loss of the Congress was in 1998 when Capt Satish Sharma, a nominee of the Gandhi family, lost to Mr Sanjay Singh by almost 23,000 votes.

The late Rajiv Gandhi had won from Amethi consecutively in 1984, 1989 and 1991. While her brother-in-law, the late Sanjay Gandhi won in 1980.