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Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who had coasted to victory in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Amethi parliamentary constituency, is facing baptism by fire this time.
Amethi goes to polls tomorrow along with 14 other constituencies in the Awadh and Purvanchal regions in the 5th phase of Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Having secured handsome victory margins of about 3,70,000 and 2,90,000 votes in 2004 and 2009 polls respectively, the battle is tough this time for the Congress' heir apparent given strong anti-incumbency sentiments and so-called Modi Wave.
The contest has become grimmer for Gandhi with a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielding feisty Smriti Irani and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominating poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas from the prestigious borough.
Vishwas, who has been camping in Amethi for the past several months, has been vocal in its diatribe against Rahul and Congress for neglecting the constituency. Irani has also campaigned extensively in Amethi over the last several weeks trying to consolidating voters in her favour by invoking Modi Wave and reminding people about Congress' failures.
Realising the changed electoral equation, Priyanka Vadra had hit the campaign trail to canvass for her brother and leading verbal attack on BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Even Congress president Sonia Gandhi had to address election rally in the constituency, which was hitherto considered a safe bet for the Gandhi family.
Yesterday, Modi addressed a rally in Amethi and made a frontal attack on the Gandhi family in his characteristic style punctuated with witty one-liners.
The 15 constituencies are Amethi, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Phulpur, Allahabad, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Kaiserganj, Shrawasti, Gonda, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar and Bhadohi.
About 25.2 million voters would decide the luck of 243 candidates in fray.
In 2009 polls, Congress had won the maximum 7 seats in these constituencies, followed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 5 and Samajwadi Party 3, while BJP had drawn a nil.
This phase would witness over a dozen musclemen and mafia-turned-politicos in fray for entry in Parliament. Leading the pack is SP's candidate Atiq Ahmad contesting from Shrawasti with 42 cases against him.
Others include Pawan Pandey (BSP, Sultanpur, 32 cases), Jitendra Singh Babloo (BSP, Faizabad, 17 cases), Mitrasen Yadav (SP, Faizabad, 16 cases), Bhal Chandra Yadav (SP, Sant Kabir Nagar, 10 cases), Brijbhushan Sharan Singh (BJP, Kaiserganj, 2 cases) etc.
