Rae Bareli, Amethi hardly a breeze for Rahul, Akhilesh

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Rae Bareli, February 22

Rae Bareli and its adjoining Amethi constituencies have come to be known as strongholds of the Gandhi family.

Plus, given the number of Samajwadi Party representatives (as many as seven of the 10 MLAs in the two districts belong to regional satrap), Rae Bareli and Amethi should have been a cakewalk for new friends — Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.

But the winds in the two constituencies represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi seem to be pointing to another direction — a change in the favour of BJP and to some extent the BSP.

Apparently, the SP-Congress tie-up has led to confusion among voters and heartburn in cadres and local leaders.

CM Bajpai, a teacher and an office-bearer of the Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, feels Rahul-Akhilesh friendship may end up doing them more harm than good. The general consensus here is that both parties could have done better had they chosen to go it alone. “Their cadres are confused and so are their voters,” he said.

Consider this: The majority of sitting MLAs in 10 seats of two constituencies — Bachhrawan, Harchandpur, Rae Bareli Sadar, Salon, Sareni and Unchahar in Rae Bareli and Jagdishpur, Gauriganj Amethi, and Tilao in Amethi — are currently held by SP and Congress. Only one out of them is held by the Peace Party.

The 10 seats should have been a breeze for the allies. But a day before the six seats in Rae Bareli vote and five days before Amethi polls, it has become a prestige issue for them to even hold on to their own.

An SP leader said: “Akhilesh and Rahul may have come together but the bonhomie has not percolated down to the cadres. Soniaji did not come here even once during these polls. We would have done much better had we gone alone.”