Loyalties on test in Congress' bastion of Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh

Seventy-year-old Sant Ram, a resident of Harchandpur in Raebareli, the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. has been a diehard Congress supporter for the past 40 years and vows to remain so this time as well, although many in his own family, especially the youngsters, are not with him.

"I have always voted for Congress... for me, it doesn't matter who is contesting from the party... the Gandhis have done a lot for this region and have made sacrifices for the country," Ram said.

While many other old-timers agree with the observations, the younger generation appears to be divided along caste and communal lines and don't hesitate in making their preferences clear.

Incidentally, Raebareli was the only seat that the Congress could win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It could not save its other bastion—Amethi—as former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was defeated by union minister Smriti Irani.

The polls, this time, will be a test of the old loyalties and the Congress' chances of regaining the lost ground is likely to be decided by the outcome of the fight between old-timers and defectors, who are now contesting on tickets of other parties.

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In the 2017 Assembly polls, Congress had won two of the six seats in the district. Aditi Singh had won from Raebareli (Sadar) while Rakesh Pratap Singh had emerged victorious from Harchandpur seat. Both of them later switched to the BJP and were promptly fielded from their respective assembly constituencies by the saffron party.

The desertions and refusal of some of the senior local Congress leaders to contest the polls forced the party to look for candidates elsewhere and the result was that it is now fielding new faces and those denied nominations by their parties and joined the grand old party barely a few days back. Congress has fielded Surendra Vikram Singh, who till a few days back, was in the Samajwadi Party (SP) from Harchandpur and Sudha Dwivedi, who had earlier sought ticket from the BJP, from the Sareni assembly seat.

Many in the district feel that Congress has lost touch with the ground reality here and depends on the old-timers for electoral success. Sonia Gandhi, reportedly owing to ill health, barely visited her constituency in the past three years and in her absence the responsibility of taking care of the region was left to Congress general secretary and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

"Congress has been losing workers and leaders here steadily since 2014... BJP leaders have been very active here... a large number of Congress leaders left the party in the past few years and joined the BJP," said Manish Tripathi, a local resident.

Besides, the SP and BSP have also nurtured local leaders in Raebareli. The son of former BJP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who joined the SP just before the polls were announced, had contested twice from this seat-once as BSP nominee and then as a BJP candidate-though he lost both times to SP's Manoj Pandey.

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Aditi, who was once considered to be close to Priyanka, has now turned a bitter critic of the party and has been targeting the Gandhi family ever since. Aditi's father, Akhilesh Singh, a muscleman, had won this seat on several occasions as an independent candidate. ''Congress will not be able to open its account here this time," she said.

Aditi also alleged that her husband Angad Singh, who was a Congress legislator from Punjab, was denied renomination by the party on the instruction of Priyanka, who wanted to settle scores with her.

Priyanka, who campaigned here for the party nominees on Saturday, exuded confidence that Congress would fare better in the polls as it had the support of the common people. ''Our rivals have nothing to show to the people in terms of development and that is why they are seeking votes in the name of caste and religion,'' she said at election meetings in the district.

Voting in Raebareli will take place on Wednesday in the fourth phase of polling. It remains to be seen if Priyanka succeeds in helping the party retain its seats through turncoats and new faces.

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