Leading Lights : Rahul Gandhi

MANDATE 2004/ LS CONSTITUENCY WATCH

He looks like an incarnation of Lord Krishna in Amethi," says Lalta Prasad Tiwari, of Rahul Gandhi. Tiwari is the caretaker of the Munhsiganj Guest House, where Sonia Gandhi and her children stay when they come to this constituency. His sentiments seem to reflective of the electorate's mood.

Since 1979, the electorate of Amethi has developed the habit of living with the demi-gods of Indian politics. After the death of Sanjay Gandhi, the constituency got Rajiv Gandhi, a youthful leader with a Mr Clean image. He took over the mantle and continued to represent the constituency till his assassination before the 1991 elections.

The worst phase for the people of Amethi appears to be the period from 1991 to 1998, when the electorate had to be content with Satish Sharma and Sanjay Singh as their representatives in Parliament.

While Sharma projected himself as a mere representative of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to win the electorate's sympathy, he could win elections only in 1991 and 1996.

But Sharma, who did not fit into the demi-god image, was comprehensively defeated in the 1998 elections by BJP candidate Sanjay Singh, a local feudal lord who has enough muscle and money at his disposal.

History will play a part in Amethi, where Rahul will do electoral battle as a Congress candidate.

In 1999, when Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination from this seat, the electorate was thrilled to vote for a Gandhi. Sonia won by a convincing margin, prompting former Congressman Sanjay Singh to switch sides and join the BJP. This time around, Rahul has no opponents.

The Congress is banking on the fact that Rahul is firmly entrenched in the people's mind as a living shadow of his father Rajiv Gandhi.

In a carefully crafted strategy, the party has deliberately put up posters all over the constituency, which show Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul side by side. It is a subtle way of communicating to the electorate the uncanny resemblance between father and son. So, Rahul's victory is a forgone conclusion.

This phenomenon is particularly unique in view of the fact that Rahul is not only shy, he isn't very articulate.

"In all his meetings, he speaks only three or four sentences," said a Congress worker in Rae Bareli. During his campaigning in Amethi, Rahul only referred to his father's unfulfilled dream and his pledge to realise the goals set by his father. But his words are working like magic.

Though Amethi stands out as a constituency where all developments came to a grinding halt after 1991, the year Rajiv Gandhi was killed, the electorate's unflinching loyalty to Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Vadra is seen as the manifestation of the voters' collective stake in the political fortune of the Nehru-Gandhi clan.

That the BJP has not even put up hoardings and posters is only indicative of the electorate's mood in this Brahmin-dominated constituency.

BJP candidate Ram Vilas Vedanti does not seem to exist. By all account, the electorate of Amethi has started truly believing that Rahul Gandhi will once again restore Amethi to the top of the country's political map.

The closed industrial estates in Jagdishpur, Jais and adjoining areas could be revived and Amethi's honour could be restored. It does not matter even if Rahul lacks experience.