Amethi and Rae Bareli are the two prestigious seats of Uttar Pradesh that will see intense political activity and brisk canvassing over the next few days. All eyes will be on these seats to assess and gauge the public mood here. Both Raebareli and Amethi will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20. Congress, faced with twin tasks of securing Rae Bareli for Rahul Gandhi and snatching Amethi from BJP, has invoked the Nehru-Gandhi family’s 100-year connection with these pocket boroughs, to develop an emotional connect with the electorate and mobilise them in its favour. The party even released a video featuring the then pictures and clippings of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi at the hustings in these constituencies.
‘Seva sau saalon ka, rishta pidiyon ka’ (100 years of Seva and ties dating back generations) is the party’s punchline for wooing and winning the support of the electorate in these family bastions. Over the next few days, the party is likely to push this narrative not just on social media but also promote it aggressively on the ground. With the initiative, they seek to renew the Gandhi family’s age-old connection with people in these bastions and also woo the fresh voters by showcasing the family’s 100-year-old ‘service’ there. Notably, Rahul Gandhi is the Congress candidate from Rae Bareli while Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma is the party’s pick from the Amethi constituency.
The Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat has been a strong bastion of the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi held the constituency for four consecutive terms. Following her election to Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi is contesting the seat in Lok Sabha elections 2024. Priyanka Gandhi has already been vigorously campaigning in these two constituencies by holding public meetings and mobilising the voters. She has been setting the tone of the campaign by asserting from various platforms on how the four generations of the Gandhi family stood with the people of the constituency. Union home minister Amit Shah has taken it up as a challenge to work out strategies to ensure Rahul Gandhi is defeated in his mother’s former constituency.
Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli has a reason. It is a constituency, first represented in the Lok Sabha by his grandfather, Feroze Gandhi, in the early years after India gained independence. Feroze Gandhi’s wife, the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, secured victory from the seat in multiple elections spanning from 1967 to 1980. Following her tenure, the legacy was carried forward by several associates and kin of the Gandhi family. The Congress party’s calculation behind fielding Rahul from Rae Bareli rests on the conclusion that Rae Bareli’s historical, emotional and electoral ties to the Gandhi family is a better, safer seat for the former Congress president, who lost Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019 by nearly 50,000 votes.
