Crossing the roads, travelling through the hinterlands of Rae Bareli, several eyes gaze the cameras as they wait for the Gandhi family star campaigner Priyanka to visit her mother Sonia’s constituency. The one feeling that some said and some unsaid words carried was that all this is just for the elections. As and when the elections pass, the villages in this VVIP constituency will be left with one to care for them.
“Sonia has done a lot for the Rae Bareli. We asked for a flyover to be made and it was ordered on the next day itself,” a villager said. Pointing to a historic temple in Raja Mau where Priyanka held her rally, he said, “This temple is the pride of Raja Mau. It was in ruins. We complained about it to Soniaji and soon after it was handed over to the ASI and is now being managed well.”
With exuberance and confidence, an old man in the area said, “This place is a Gandhi bastion and will only elect a Gandhi.” But at the same time, he did not shy away from accepting that BJP’s NarendraModi does certainly have a strong effect on people, though not in this VVIP constituency but definitely in other parts of the country.
With Priyanka and her fleet were several other media persons tracking every move that she took and capturing every word that she said. Rae Bareli loved the attention with people readily posing for pictures and giving their views on the elections.
Unfortunately, being a VVIP constituency, the one sentiment that could not be subdued in the area was the feeling of insecurity and unease. “No one does anything, which ever government comes, it will be the same for all of us,” an agitated villager in Rae Bareli said.
“Indiraji used to visit us. She used to come to our homes and talk to us, no one be it Sonia, Priyanka, Rahul or anyone else, does that now,” was the strongest sentiment that mostly the old felt.
In a move to connect to the masses, she reached out to the people and shook hands with them instead of climbing up the dais and giving her speech from there. All this, amidst cheers of “Priyanka Gandhi aagebadho, hum tumharesaathhai” by Youth Congress leaders.
While Priyanka in her rallies said that a lot of employment has been generated in Rae Bareli through the rail coach factory or the steel factories, the residents hardly echoed the word. But most certainly despite all the odds, the people in the area seem highly willing to repose their faith in the Congress President, the ‘Gandhi bahu’, yet again
