Amethi: Dubai expatriate Harish Mishra was struggling to transfer an audio file via his mobile. “Shift to 2G and if it doesn’t work try Jijaji,” he shouted, adding, “welcome to Amethi.”
Mishra was campaigning for Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kumar Vishwas, a poet-turned politician who is challenging incumbent parliamentarian and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his stronghold of Amethi.
Mishra has been based here for the last fortnight, campaigning for Vishwas, shifting between a hoodless Mahindra four-wheel drive and an air-conditioned SUV. “You won’t believe how I’m living here but it is too hot,” Mishra, an insurance broker, told Gulf News on Tuesday. His emphasis on “Jijaji” was deliberate to convey that he is aware of this jibe directed at Rahul’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra who is accused of being involved in dubious land deals.
Mishra’s car followed a convoy of Toyota and Mahindra vehicles snaking through Amethi villages, huge black speakers mounted on a car blared AAP theme songs, drawing small crowds of curious villagers.
Vishwas and his team know that to be understood well in this Gandhi bastion of Amethi, one has to be loud and clear. As the convoy stops in a Muslim-dominated hamlet of Kuturpurwa — cluster of 1,500 odd residents in Gauriganj block — a group of children and women surround Vishwas’ car seeking AAP’s trademark white caps. Vishwas leaned from the open jeep and touched the forehead of 22-year-old Uzma Bano, a postgraduate in political science, and promised to do “something” if he wins from Amethi.
“We want change because we need proper roads and employment,” Bano told Gulf News. She is not alone seeking a change. “We will vote for AAP because we need water, roads and drainage,” 70-year-old Samiullah said when asked why he won’t vote for two-time member of parliament Rahul.
Samiullah’s neighbour Harikesh Singh, a lawyer, says he will vote for Congress.
“I don’t know about Muslims but we will always vote for Rahul.” The Congress has lost only once from here in 1977 and only twice has Amethi elected a non-Gandhi. Ironically, a party that has always projected itself as the champion of Muslim cause, is facing the anger of Muslims.
Another resident of the hamlet, 25-year-old Imtiyaz Ahmad, an MBA employed with Genesis health group in New Delhi, said: “Rahul could have developed health infrastructure here. In Sanjay Gandhi hospital here, doctors don’t stay beyond a few months and there’s no equipment.”
Muslims are angry in other parts of Amethi constituency that stretches 140km in two directions.
“In several pockets people are angry with Congress,” said Rehan Sidiqqui, another AAP volunteer from Dubai who is a marketing professional.
“Secondly, Vishwas has worked hard, he has been camping in Amethi for the last four months,” he said, adding, “he is popular in Muslim dominated areas. “See a Muslim is also a human being and needs roads, water and electricity, how long will these people seek votes in the name of Hindus and Muslims,” he said when asked why Muslims were unhappy with Rahul. “For the first time, Amethi is witnessing an election, not a selection,” Siddiqui added.
It is this discontent with Rahul that both Vishwas and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Smriti Irani hope to capitalise on when Amethi votes on May 7.
On Tuesday afternoon, Irani addressed a sizeable gathering of BJP supporters in Musaafirkhana block.
“I think that Mrs Vadra’s personal attacks on me show that the Congress party is extremely uncomfortable with the people’s ire against Rahul Gandhi. It is interesting Rahul is not only missing from parliament but also from this campaign.” Irani told Gulf News.
“If I was not winning, Mrs Vadra would not have attacked me,” said Irani, twice referring to Priyanka Gandhi as ‘Mrs Vadra’.
Irani’s meeting was attended by BJP’s ‘Mr Clean’ and chief minister of sunshine state of Goa, Manohar Parrikar.
A hundred metres from Irani’s meeting venue, a vegetable vendor, who heard Irani’s speech, said: “Rahul won last time by 370,000 votes, so this time he will win by a lesser margin. So what?”
Meanwhile, Priyanka has shifted base to Amethi to focus on her brother’s campaigning.
— Bobby Naqvi is editor of Xpress, a sister publication of Gulf News
