Battle for Amethi: BJP, Cong relying on 'borrowed' players; SP banking on OBC support

Traditional rivals BJP and Congress are relying on "borrowed" players in the battle for Amethi, the bastion of the Gandhi family which the saffron party has demolished now.

The BJP has fielded veteran Congress leader Sanjay Sinh, who crossed over from the grand old party to the saffron camp in 2019, while the Congress has nominated turncoat Ashish Shukla from the assembly seat which will go to polls on February 27 in the fifth of the seven phase Uttar Pradesh elections.

Starting with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Shukla had shifted to the BJP in 2017 and has now left it for the Congress.

Moments after the announcement of Sinh's candidature, Shukla was inducted into the Congress in Delhi and was immediately named as its nominee from the high-profile seat that continues to draw the nation's attention due to its association with the Gandhi family since the days of Indira Gandhi.

Without losing any time, Sinh and Shukla swore their loyalty to their respective new parties and are reaching out to voters with their parties' manifestos.

But, in the fight between the BJP and the Congress, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded life convict Gayatri Prajapati's wife for the Amethi assembly seat.

Mayawati's BSP has chosen Ragini Tiwari as part of its old social engineering formula of Dalits-Brahmins, threatening to make the contest a multi-corner one.

The fight for Amethi started in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani challenged former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Though she lost in 2014, Irani avenged her defeat by trouncing Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The script of the last parliamentary poll upset was written by the BJP in the 2017 assembly elections again when it won four out of the five assembly seats in the Amethi Lok Sabha segment.

The Gauriganj seat had gone to the SP then, while the Congress drew a blank in 2017.

The Amethi Lok Sabha seat comprises five assembly constituencies- Amethi, Gauriganj, Jagdishpur (SC reserved) and Tiloi and Salon (located in neighbouring Rae Bareli district).

Amethi is no more a bastion (of the Congress), said Sinh, in whose favour the BJP settled a family feud for a poll ticket between his first wife and BJP MLA Garima Singh and his second wife and badminton player Amita Singh, who switched over to the party along with her husband.

"It's neither any longer a 'gadh' (fort) nor any the 'gadhwale' is seen here," he said mockingly while campaigning.

Sinh is reaching out to the people on the basis of the development works done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani.

Congress candidate Shukla, who had once fought against Rahul Gandhi in a parliamentary election from Amethi and bagged over one lakh votes, is canvassing on the basis of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's "Ladki Hun, Lad Sakti Hoon" campaign and the promises made by the party in its manifesto.

For SP nominee Maharaji Prajapati and her son and two daughters, the fight is to get justice for her husband Gayatri Prajapati, a minister in the earlier SP government, who is serving life sentence in a case of gangrape of a minor girl.

"It's all false...my father was implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy," said Anil Prajapati, who is overseeing his mother's campaigning.

Prajapati's daughters Ankita Prajapati and Sudha Praapati are taking the help of social media to seek justice for their jailed father.

Meanwhile, BSP's Tiwari is banking on the huge Brahmin vote as well as the base vote of Mayawati among Dalits, to propel her to victory.

According to sources in different political parties, the Amethi assembly seat has over 3.48 lakh electors. Out of this Brahmins are 80,000, Thakurs around 30,000, Muslims 25,000, Dalits 30,000 and Other Backward Class nearly 1.25 lakh.

While Sinh is a Thakur, Congress nominee Shukla and BSP contestant Tiwari are Brahmins. SP's Maharaji Prajapati is from the OBC.

Rajesh Agrahi, a powerful local BJP leader who is also Smriti Irani's constituency representative, told PTI, "Neither Rahul Gandhi has any taker among people nor any caste factor will work here".

"Only 'Modi-Yogi' chant is on the lips of every poor who are availing free ration and health benefits being provided by the double engine government, among others, without any discrimination," Agrahi, who himself was a strong contender for the poll ticket, said.

College going girls, Sadhna and Priti, say Priyanka Gandhi's "Ladki hoon..." catchline has no effect among the people.

"Shall we study or fight the goondas?" Priti, a resident of Jayash locality said.

Jang Bahadur Singh, Loknath Yadav and Ram Bahadur Yadav of Pandeypur bazar, said they would vote only for those who promise to do development work in the area.

Pitardeen Shukla and Binod Kumar Shukla of Madhavpur village in Gauriganj said "(Muhammad Ali) Jinnah and Pakistan will not provide them 'roji-roti' (livelihood). We need somebody who does development work in the area."

District Congress president Prashant Tripathi and his colleagues Anupam Pandey and Anil Singh highlighted the setting up of the Petroleum Institute, CRPF training camp and seven NHs by the Congress in Amethi.

BJP district unit president Durgesh Tripathi said "Rahul Gandhi's development could be understood from the fact that there was no CT-Scan facility in Gauriganj during his time while Smriti ji has got nine oxygen plants, an over-bridge to decongest traffic rush among others.