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Rahul Gandhi is expected to lead his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, into Uttar Pradesh (UP) today on February 16. Gandhi will arrive in eastern UP from Chandauli and will visit Pratapgarh and Amethi later. He will address a public meeting in Amethi and meet people in Raebareli, and Lucknow around February 19.
There is excitement in UP over a crucial meeting to take place between Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Gandhi. Ever since Yadav accepted an invitation by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to join the yatra in UP all eyes are on Amethi and Raebareli where the two opposition party leaders are expected to meet.
“Akhilesh Yadav has received an invitation of Mallikarjun Kharge to join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which enters UP on February 16. Yadav has given his consent to join the yatra either in Amethi or Raebareli," said a statement released by the SP.
“Rahul and Akhilesh are leaders of India of the future. Politicians like Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar are burnt out and unable to think of the good of the country. It is best if tired, self-centred turncoats like Kumar retire and are no longer allowed to play with the destiny of Indians,” a Lucknow University student, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Citizen.
The student had referred to Kumar’s recent whimsical exit from I.N.D.I.A. an alliance of about 28 Opposition parties that he had helped to put together in a joint effort to challenge the ruling party in the Lok Sabha elections to be held this year. But overnight Kumar changed sides to take the oath of Chief Minister as a partner of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leaving even the most up-to-date political pundits scratching their heads.
With the former I.N.D.I.A. bloc now in disarray, there is a possibility of new alliances in the making. Rumours are rife in Lucknow that if the meeting between Rahul and Akhilesh goes well in UP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati may also agree to contest the upcoming general elections in a seat sharing partnership with the Congress and the SP.
Political analysts have confided in The Citizen that Kharge is in talks with the BSP leadership. Both Mayawati and Gandhi have already publicly declared support to the on-going farmer’s agitation and the main agenda of the Congress, SP and the BSP remains social justice in the country for the backward caste populations, Dalits and minorities.
Both the Congress and the SP remain members of the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
The SP recently offered 11 seats to the Congress for the upcoming parliamentary polls in UP which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
The Congress has faced criticism from I.N.D.I.A. partners like the TMC which has attacked it over seat sharing and on carrying out the yatra. TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had ignored Rahul’s yatra when it passed through her state.
After the six-month-long, 4,500-kilometre Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir last year, Rahul Gandhi is leading another road trip, this time called the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY), which began on January 14 from Manipur. The yatra will conclude on March 20 in Mumbai.
All Eyes On Amethi
It will be an emotional moment for Rahul when he visits Amethi. He is the fourth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to contest from Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency which he lost in 2019.
As a Lok Sabha constituency Amethi came into being in 1967 and remained a Congress bastion till 1977. Sanjay Gandhi regained Amethi for the Congress in 1980 and after his death in the same year, his older brother and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi contested and won the by-election in 1981.
Rajiv’s widow, Sonia had nursed Amethi till 2004 after which Rahul stepped in. However, the voters in Amethi regret that Rahul Gandhi had rarely visited them, making the voters feel orphaned by a legislature they love very much.
That is why the voters had voted Gandhi out in the last Lok Sabha elections held in 2019. Rahul has chosen to say goodbye to Amethi as he plans to contest this year’s general election once again from South India.
Raebareli Sans The Gandhis
It is not just Amethi that has been abandoned by Rahul but senior Congress leader Sonia will not contest from Raebareli. This is one of 80 constituencies of Lok Sabha in UP and the Congress has won elections 17 times from Raebareli in the past.
In 1957 Feroz Gandhi, Rahul’s grandfather, had nursed the constituency. Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister won from Raebareli in 1971, but lost it to socialist leader Raj Narain in 1977. However, in the 1980 elections Indira won Raebareli back for the Congress.
Sonia was elected from Raebareli in 2019, but will now represent the Congress in the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
To the excitement of her many followers in UP, Priyanka Gandhi is expected to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli instead of her mother Sonia this year. This will be Priyanka’s first foray into electoral politics.
The SP’s Many Woes
When SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had coined PDA an acronym for pichda (backward), Dalit and alpsankhyak (minorities) he was lauded for doing so. However, many of his supporters are criticising Yadav for not practising what he preaches.
There is criticism of Yadav for choosing three names to represent the SP in Rajya Sabha.
Out of the three names two belong to the upper caste while Ramji Lal Suman is an elderly person from the Jatav Dalit community. “Where are the women from the backward caste and from the minority communities?” Pallavi Patel, a close ally of Yadav, asked.
The SP has made Patel and Swami Prasad Maurya very angry by choosing actress Jaya Bachchan for the fifth time to represent the party in the Rajya Sabha. Why?
The other name objected to by many within the SP is that of former bureaucrat Alok Ranjan.
Bachchan may be a good actress and Ranjan a good bureaucrat but neither are politicians, nor socialists, is a common criticism of the choice made by Yadav who is blamed for enjoying sycophants.
“These people have been chosen for being loyalists not for their political acumen. A political party needs good speakers in Rajya Sabha. Rajya Sabha seats are not for rewarding loyalists for being super sycophants,” an angry SP leader said.
