Congress president Sonia Gandhi is sitting pretty in Amethi which has a past linked to Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
In Amethi, a Sonia wave is quite visible. People are hunting out arguments in favour of Sonia Gandhi to reply to BJP campaign. People have dismissed as scare campaign the talk of Sanjay Singh's attempts to threaten voters and the rumour of AK-47s being smuggled into the constituency. These things are not going to matter, as people are so overwhelmingly in favour of Sonia Gandhi.
The reason , says Rajesh Shukla in Gauri Gunj Bazaar, "We are all used to VIP treatment and we want to get it back. During the years when Nehru-Gnadhi family represented the area, we never faced any difficulty. Even Satish Sharma gave us with gas connections and petrol pumps. But in the 13 months of BJP rule, there were huge power cuts, there is no water in many areas. Roads have not been repaired."
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Klayan Singh failed to keep his promise made at the time of the last elections that he would adopt Amethi and Sanjay Singh would be made a Union minister.
As per the Hindu tradition, women goes to the house of her husband and she becomes a part of that family. This is what has happened with Sonia. She is part of the family and not a foreign person, Shukla says.
He cites interesting examples. President K R Narayanan's wife is of foreign origin. So was the wife and daughter of Subash Chandra Bose. But they are Indian. He hunts out many other names of Indians who have spouses of foreign origin.
When asked about the closed factories, nobody has any convincing answers. They do admit that very few local people got jobs in them, but whatever, they are the only ones who have done something for the area.
The BJP is trying to combat with the strength of the cadre. But so overwhelming is the Sonia wave that there is nobody who is prepared to listen.