Rae Bareli, Amethi to be no cakewalk for Rahul, Akhilesh : The Tribune India

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Rae Bareli, Amethi to be no cakewalk for Rahul, Akhilesh

RAE BARELI: Rae Bareli and adjoining Amethi constituencies have come to be known as the strongholds of the Gandhi family. But winds in the two constituencies seem to be pointing to a change in favour of the BJP and BSP.

Rae Bareli, Amethi to be no cakewalk for Rahul, Akhilesh

File photo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. —PTI



Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Rae Bareli, February 22


Rae Bareli and adjoining Amethi constituencies have come to be known as the strongholds of the Gandhi family. But winds in the two constituencies represented by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi seem to be pointing to a change in favour of the BJP and BSP.

The reason may not be a superior strategising by their rivals. Apparently, the tie-up between the Samajwadi Party and Congress 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 and Akhilesh’s recent friendship may end up doing them more harm than good.
And he is not the only one to think so. The general consensus here is that both parties would have done better had they chosen to go it alone. “Their cadres are confused and so are their voters,” says Bajpai.
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 incumbent Samajwadi Party and Congress.
So, the 10 seats should have been a cakewalk for the new friends. But a day before the six constituencies in Rae Bareli vote and five days before Amethi polls, it is now a prestige issue for the two allies to somehow manage to hold on to their own. Seven of these 10 seats are with the SP.
An SP leader says, “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. Not just this, in places like Sareni, Unchahar, Amethi and Gauriganj, the Congress and SP are engaged in friendly fights with leaders from both sides calling their candidates as the coalition candidates. We would do much better had we gone alone.”

Therefore, a day before the Phase-4 polls on Thursday, the Rae Bareli Sadar Assembly seat, from where Aditi Singh, the daughter of Bahubali neta Akhilesh Singh is contesting, seems to be the only seat where the Congress can have complete confidence.
Having held political sway over Rae Bareli for 25 years, Singh won thrice from here on the Congress symbol, once as an Independent and recently, on the Peace Party ticket.
But despite her father’s dominance over the constituency, BSP’s Mohammad Shahbaaz is giving her a good fight, making the most of the Muslim presence in the region.
The “confusion” in the SP-Congress cadres and favouarble caste equations are what seems to be working for the BJP. Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani’s rally on the last day of the campaign in Rae Bareli on Tuesday may have failed to pull crowds but BJP leaders blame it on the “general lackluster” atmosphere of these polls.
They say the BJP’s carefully picking caste-based choices has put it in the race.

Along with strong caste equations, the “Narendra Modi factor” also seems to be working.
Despite the region being a Samajwadi stronghold, thanks to backward and OBC presence, the fear in the camp is that the confusion among the cadres (the what-was-the-need-of-the-tie-up question) could have facilitated a cross-over to the other sides.
It seems a good percentage—15 to 20—of the SP’s traditional vote bank—Yadavs—may no longer be averse to rivals, putting the saffron party and the BSP in a fighting position in the triangular fight here.

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