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Coomi Kapoor
AMETHI, SEPT 3: If the early bird gets the worm, then Sanjay Singh, the sitting MP from Amethi, has a distinct advantage. Singh and his wife Ameeta, a former badminton champion, have been campaigning door-to-door in the villages for the last three months.
With her head demurely covered with the chiffon saree, sporting a double bindi, bangles and anklets, Ameeta has adjusted to her role of Rani of Amethi with aplomb. She keeps up the royal family's tradition of social work, arranging marriages for poor villagers and renovating the decaying 400-year-old palace. She is her husband's campaign manager and clearly the driving force. Singh's first wife Garima, who stays in Lucknow, is never mentioned.
The world may regard Amethi as the Gandhi family constituency, but Ameeta sees it otherwise. The Gandhis are here in Amethi courtesy her husband's family. Indira Gandhi requested Sanjay's father Raja Rananjan Singh to allow Sanjay Gandhi to contest from their former kingdom. The two families have old ties sinceMotilal Nehru was the royal family's lawyer. ``We gifted the constituency to the Gandhis on the understanding that they would bring development, but we have been cheated,'' claims Sanjay Singh.
Ameeta, who does most of the talking, adds, ``The days of absentee landlordism are over.'' She points out that Sonia has visited Amethi only thrice in the last nine years. ``But we are here for our people always.''
In contrast to the very visible signs of campaign preparations at the palace, there is a lock on the Congress office in Amethi town. Congress workers are awaiting the arrival of Priyanka next week for instructions. She will stay in Amethi for two days and then return for a fortnight closer to the poll date.
Talking to the voters of this agricultural, relatively poor constituency, 150 km from Lucknow, it is clear that Sonia's absence and the Congress Party's lethargy makes no difference. There is near unanimity that Sonia will win easily from Amethi. ``We have a competition with Bellary to see thatSoniaji retains the Amethi seat, so we will give her a big majority,'' assures Iqbal Ahmed. ``What does it matter if she is not here physically, it is enough that we are in her thoughts,'' adds Anupam Pandey.
If Sonia is so popular, then how come her nominee Satish Sharma lost the election last time? Ravindra Kumar Verma explains that last time, the mood was in favour of the BJP and besides, Sanjay Singh adopted strong-arm tactics. Gayatri Prasad Prajapati of the Samajwadi Party points out there was repolling in 80 booths last year. His contention is that the SP, the District Magistrate and the SHO are all Singh's appointees and act at his behest. But the SP is clearly on a weak wicket; a week back, its candidate for Amethi Dr Mohammed Muslim, an MLA, defected to the Congress.
The BJP's case is that the development of Amethi under the Gandhis is an illusion. Of the 80-odd licences granted to industries, 60 to 70 backed out after Rajiv Gandhi's death. Satish Sharma as Petroleum Minister doled outpetrol pumps (Amethi has 80 petrol stations) and gas cylinders liberally, but his largesse benefited only a favoured few who are Congress supporters, and are resented by others.
One such beneficiary is Jagdish Piyus, known as the poet laureate of Amethi for his ability to churn out doggerel on the Gandhi family at the drop of a hat. Piyus, who started as the Amethi stringer for several newspapers, has clearly prospered. His family owns two petrol pumps and he has opened a Rajiv Gandhi Science College, a Rajiv Gandhi Junior School and Rajiv Gandhi Primary School which were recently granted a Rs 2.50 lakh donation by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
Piyus, in fact, foresaw the `videshi' issue back in 1984, when he wrote his booklet Amethi Ki Do Bahu and made out a case for Sonia being the true representative of Indian womanhood, as opposed to Maneka. To date he has penned some 20 pamphlets on the Gandhi family. His latest piece is on Priyanka as the future Prime Minister and national leader of thestatus of Atal Behari Vajpayee. ``I am a servant of the Nehru family and proud of it,'' he asserts.
Scoffing at Ameeta's pretensions to be a Rani, he has coined the slogan ``Na Rani Maharani ko, Sonia hamari bahurani ko''.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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