Of legacies and changing electoral realities in old family strongholds

For the first time in 25 years, the Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh will not see a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family contesting a Lok Sabha election, nor will Baghpat have a candidate from the family of former prime minister Charan Singh. The contest for Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh will not feature either Yashwant Sinha or his son Jayant, again a first in a quarter of a century, nor will the electorate of UP’s Pilibhit have in their midst either Maneka Gandhi or son Varun canvassing for votes, a first in over three decades.

While Jayant Sinha and Varun Gandhi, both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the outgoing Lok Sabha, were left with little choice, the decisions of the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary, are voluntary. In 2019, Rahul Gandhi lost Amethi to the BJP's Smriti Irani by nearly five per cent votes, a small margin in the context of a Lok Sabha election. For Jayant Chaudhary, the margin of loss from Baghpat to the BJP's Satyapal Singh was a mere 2.25 per cent.

 

But some others have responded differently. In 2019, Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh CM, Digivijaya Singh, had suffered a massive defeat in Bhopal – by 26 per cent votes – to the BJP's Pragya Thakur. He is back in the electoral battle from Rajgarh, a family stronghold that Digvijaya and his brother Lakshman Singh have between themselves represented in the Lok Sabha on seven occasions. But the BJP's Rodmal Nagar has won the seat comfortably in the last two elections, including by 34 per cent in 2019.

In Kannauj, where the Samajwadi Party’s Dimple Yadav suffered a surprise loss in 2019, her husband, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, has entered the contest to regain a seat that his family members have represented since 1999. A legislator from Karhal in Mainpuri, Akhilesh Yadav felt he needed to enter the poll fray to galvanise his party workers.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, then in the Congress, had suffered a rare defeat in 2019 in his family’s stronghold, Madhya Pradesh’s Guna, at the hands of former aide Krishna Pal Singh Yadav by over 10 per cent votes. Five years hence, he has returned to reclaim the seat, but as a BJP candidate.

However, the first family of the Congress has opted to keep away from contesting from Amethi, picking family loyalist K L Sharma to fight the battle against Irani. On Friday morning, the Congress announced that party leader Rahul Gandhi, in addition to Kerala’s Wayanad, where polling concluded on April 26, will contest from Rae Bareli, a constituency his mother Sonia Gandhi won consecutively from 2004 to 2019, and not Amethi.

Rahul Gandhi’s decision of not contesting from Amethi, where he won thrice – in 2004, 2009 and 2014 – and lost in 2019, invited mockery from the BJP and PM Narendra Modi. With Rahul Gandhi “running away” from the Amethi battle, and Sonia Gandhi entering the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, there was no need for opinion polls or exit polls to ascertain the poll outcome, said Modi. “They go around and ask people not to feel afraid. I would tell them the same thing – don’t be afraid, and don’t run away,” the PM said at his rallies in West Bengal. The Congress leadership defended Rahul’s decision of fielding family loyalist KL Sharma against Irani as strategic, pointing to his stellar skills on a chessboard and the political battleground. The results on June 4 would surprise people, they said. Party sources also pointed out the Nehru-Gandhi family's longer association with Rae Bareli. 

However, there are others who have shown willingness to enter difficult battles to protect family turf. In Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi, Congress legislator Vikramaditya Singh has plunged himself into a tough contest against the BJP’s Kangana Ranaut. It is a seat represented in the past by Vikdramaditya’s father, former Himachal CM Virbhadra, and his mother, Pratibha.

There also are some seats where family members are contesting against each other to prove themselves as the true legatee of their political inheritance. Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa is witnessing a fight between cousins – the Congress’ Y S Sharmila Reddy and the YSR Congress Party’s (YSRCP’s) Y S Avinash Reddy. Sharmila’s father, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and brother Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, have represented this seat in the past.

In Maharashtra’s Baramati, incumbent Supriya Sule faces her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar in a battle that could decide whether she or her cousin Ajit Pawar gets to inherit the mantle of Sharad Pawar.

There are also instances of incumbents switching parties when denied a ticket – Rahul Kaswan of Churu, for instance. His father Ram Singh Kaswan represented the seat on four occasions, as did Rahul Kaswan in 2014 and 2019, both as BJP candidates. For the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul is as a Congress candidate after the BJP denied him a ticket.

The Nehru-Gandhi family, as party sources pointed out, has had a closer association with the Rae Bareli constituency than Amethi. Rahul’s grandfather Feroze Gandhi was elected from Rae Bareli in 1951-52 and again in 1957, and his grandmother Indira Gandhi represented it after her husband’s death. Her rare loss from Rae Bareli happened amid the post-Emergency anti-Congress wave of 1977, leading her to contest from two seats in 1980 – Medak, which is now in Telangana, and Rae Bareli.

The beginnings of the family’s association with Amethi, however, was unfavourable. In his electoral debut in 1977, Rahul’s uncle Sanjay Gandhi lost from Amethi, as did all other candidates of his party, including his mother. He, however, persisted with Amethi, winning in 1980. Later, Rajiv Gandhi won from Amethi in a bypoll, and again in 1984, 1989 and 1991. In 1999, Sonia Gandhi made her electoral debut by contesting from Amethi, in addition to Karnataka's Bellary, deciding later to retain Amethi and vacating the Bellary seat. After the passing away of Indira Gandhi, members of the extended family, Arun Nehru and Sheila Kaul, and later Satish Sharma, also contested from Rae Bareli on a Congress ticket.