COVER STORY

Amethi's pride

VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN

"WHEN the first family of Amethi returns, can we stick to recent loyalties?" Rajjan Lal's voice held an accusatory tone as he hurled this question at this correspondent, standing amidst a group of villagers in Jagadishpur in Amethi constituency.

What provoked this rhetorical comment on the permanence of some political loyalties was a question why Rajjan Lal had left Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Sanjay Singh's camp overnight after Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi's candidature had been anno unced from Amethi. Rajjan Lal had campaigned for Sanjay Singh in the 1998 elections and was set to solicit votes for him this time too. But all that changed once it became clear that Sonia Gandhi would contest from Amethi.

Of course, Rajjan Lal and his family were a trifle upset that Sonia Gandhi had contested from Bellary in Karnataka too. To them, this was indicative of "a sense of distrust that madam had", a symptom of her doubts about the political loyalty of the const ituency that had long been assiduously nursed by her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But far from holding it against her, Rajjan Lal and others said that they would work doubly hard to reassure Sonia Gandhi that their loyalty to the "firs t family of Amethi" was not fickle.

There are hundreds of Rajjan Lals across the length and breadth of Amethi these days - in Tiloi, Salon, Gauriganj or Jagadishpur. The very people who had rejected Captain Satish Sharma, the Congress(I) candidate, in 1998 are now flocking back to the Cong ress(I).

For Mukul Sharma of Tiloi, this had a ready explanation. Following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, Amethi fell on hard times. For a while, Captain Sharma nursed the constituency, but his political sights were fixed on far-away Delhi, and all d evelopment activity in Amethi stopped after a few years. "Amethi," said Mukul Sharma, "became a ghost of what it was during Rajiv Gandhi's time." Between 1993 and 1998, the people of Amethi virtually became "fed up" of politicians, he said. Looking for " a change", they switched their loyalty to Sanjay Singh, who in 1998 became the first Bharatiya Janata Party candidate to be elected from here.

SUBIR ROY
With son Rahul beside her, Sonia Gandhi files her nomination in Amethi

Today, however, Mukul Sharma, like Rajjan Lal, has turned away from Sanjay Singh. "Not for any fault of Sanjay Singh's," says Mukul Sharma. In fact, he adds, Sanjay Singh did look after the constituency - "but nobody can match the Gandhi-Nehru family's c ontribution."

All that the people of Amethi seem to want at this moment is a darshan of Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka, who virtually took over the campaign since September 15. Priyanka holds roadside meetings and stops by at wayside dhabas to have jalebis and chai with the local people. Her grace and the easy manner in which she interacts with them often leaves them beaming with joy.

The Congress(I)'s campaign is based principally on whipping up an atmosphere of nostalgia for Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and their contributions to Amethi. Issues of national concern, which are raised in other constituencies, find no articulation her e.

On his part, Sanjay Singh is fighting a hard battle, moving from village to village with his wife Amita and meeting village pradhans. At these meetings, Sanjay Singh tells them that he is aware that they had reposed great hopes in him last time, and that he had endeavoured to fulfil their aspirations. "I will continue to be the son of our soil, unlike those who come visiting you once in a year and who have showed that they do not have enough trust in you," Sanjay Singh says.

SUBIR ROY
Sanjay Singh, the BJP candidate, savours a moment of media attention.

Occasionally, he invokes Atal Behari Vajpayee's name and sings paeans to the "able Prime Minister who saved the country from the grave dangers posed by the Kargil crisis". But the impact of this campaign is nowhere near as evocative as the response durin g the 1998 campaign when he raised the issue of the "apathy and corruption of Captain Satish Sharma".

Sanjay Singh won in 1998 by a margin of 23,000 votes; his campaign managers know that he faces a far more formidable opponent in Sonia Gandhi. In 1998, Mohammed Naim, the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate who finished third, had secured 1.50 lakh votes, part ly on the strength of the party's support among Muslims. There has subsequently been a massive shift of support of Muslims from both the Samajwadi Party and the BSP towards the Congress(I), and Sonia Gandhi should find the going easy.

Also in the fray in Amethi are Mohammed Fauji of the S.P., a popular local leader, and Paras Nath Maurya of the BSP. Muslims account for 13 per cent of Amethi's population, and Dalits for 28 per cent; yet these two parties are not expected to do too well this time.