Amethi: Sans Rahul as poll rival, Smriti Irani's unkept promises keep her on her toes

Narain and Singh had defeated Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi from Rae Bareli and Amethi, respectively, in the 1977 post-Emergency polls but within three years, the duo were consigned to the pages of history when Indira and Sanjay emerged victorious from these seats. In the years since, Narain and Singh have largely become forgotten figures of Indian politics; remembered largely for just that one electoral triumph.

On May 20, in a political landscape that is vastly different from that of the India of 1980, the voters of Amethi will decide whether Irani returns as their MP in the Lok Sabha or faces an ignominious defeat against a challenger, who Dinesh Pratap Singh, the BJP candidate against Rahul in adjoining Rae Bareli, recently called a “chaprasi” (peon) of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

High stakes battle 

The stakes for the Congress party, which robbed political observers of the spectacle of another Irani versus Rahul contest this poll season, are just as higher. The Congress may have fielded family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma against the garrulous Union minister but for all practical purposes the Amethi contest remains, in popular imagination, as one between Irani and the Nehru-Gandhi family.

As the showrunner for Sharma’s campaign, Rahul’s sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has made it abundantly clear that Amethi continues to be a prestige seat for the Nehru-Gandhis and that Sharma, who until a month ago was Sonia Gandhi’s MP representative for Rae Bareli, is contesting the polls as a stand-in for her family.

That an Irani versus Rahul contest would have been thrilling is obvious and the anticipation among many of high-decibel low blows from the BJP candidate against the Gandhis wasn’t misplaced.

Smith Irani in a tight corner

The Congress’s decision to field KL Sharma from Amethi put paid to all that but, more importantly, what it has also achieved in Amethi is to bring the focus squarely on Irani’s performance as the constituency’s MP. Even a cursory tour across the constituency is sufficient to showcase why the current battle has pushed Irani into an uncomfortable corner.

In 2019, Irani had defeated Rahul from Amethi by a margin of just over 55,000 votes. Five years on, it is hard to ignore a baffling sense of remorse among Amethi’s voters over backing Irani. Rahul’s decision to leave Amethi for Sharma and, instead, take over the electoral mantle of Rae Bareli from his mother Sonia Gandhi has only bolstered this sentiment further.

“Hum log behkaawe mei aa gaye, galti hamari hai aur uska ehsaas Amethi ki saari janta ko hai; pachtaawa sabko hai par iss bar galti sudhaar lenge (We got misled, everyone in Amethi realises they made a mistake and everyone is repenting today; we will rectify the mistake this time),” Rajesh Tripathi, a resident of Bevli village in Amethi’s Salon assembly segment told The Federal.

A similar view is echoed by Sudhir Kumar, who runs a puncture repair shop in Salon’s Parshadepur. Kumar believes Amethi “fell for Irani’s fake promises of providing sugar at ₹13 a kilo” and broke the bond that the constituency had shared with the Gandhi family for “over 40 years”.

“We betrayed them (the Gandhis) for a kilo of sugar but what did we get in return? Everything has become so expensive that the government has been forced to give free ration but how long does that ration last in a big family? I have nine people to feed and that five kilo ration doesn’t last even a week. We can’t even complain to Irani because she never comes here; she has built a house for herself while we are being forced to mortgage everything we have. Ek bhale aadmi ko hara ke ek badtameez sansad chuna humne; is baar Rahul ko manana hai aur Smriti ko harana hai (We defeated a good man to elect an arrogant MP; this time we have to make up to Rahul and defeat Smriti),” said Kumar.

Unkept promises

Across Amethi, Irani’s unfulfilled poll promise of providing sugar at ₹13/kg has become something of a rallying cry among voters to defeat her this election. Priyanka Gandhi, who has been handling Sharma’s campaign since May 6, also made it a point to rake up the rising price of food items at every interaction with voters.

Priyanka’s campaign in Amethi saw her addressing anywhere between six to 12 corner meetings a day. Jabs at Irani for her unfulfilled ‘₹13/kg sugar’ promise, her silence on rising food prices and her “drama” of coming “uninvited” into homes of some locals and making them “swear in the name of God” to vote for her, feature in almost all of Priyanka’s interactions.

“The only reason why she (Irani) came to Amethi was to defeat my brother. She has no personal bond with all of you. She does not care for you. Has she ever asked you how you are coping with the skyrocketing prices of food? Has she ever got any of you a job? During the (COVID) pandemic, my brother called me and told me to ensure that any person from Amethi who is stranded elsewhere in the country due to the lockdown should be brought home safely. He did this even though he was no longer your MP; he did it because you are our family but what did the person who you elected do for you when you needed her support,” Priyanka told a gathering in Amethi’s Gauriganj.

The crowd, mostly comprising women, cheered Priyanka while Sharma stood quietly behind her – a common scene at most of her corner meetings in the constituency.

Family bonds

At another corner meeting in Amethi’s Jagdishpur assembly segment, Priyanka reiterates the same litany of charges at Irani.

She then introduces Sharma as “a member of our family who has worked among you people for the past 40 years”. Priyanka tells voters across Amethi that it was with the help of Sharma that she began nursing the Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies and that “Kishori ji knows every single village, every road, every street of the two constituencies... he is a humble man, not like your current MP (Irani), and he will always solve your problems”.

At many such meetings, locals share their problems – some struggling to pay off debts, others worried about the future of their unemployed son or daughter.

Priyanka asks a volunteer to hand over the microphone to whoever wishes to speak; often cutting her own speech short to let the locals vent their ire and grievances. It’s a strategy that effectively evokes derision for Irani; a leader seen by many in Amethi as “foul-mouthed” and “ill-tempered” who does not like to be reminded of her unfulfilled promises.

Shailesh Prasad, a resident of Musafirkhana in Amethi’s Jagdishpur assembly segment narrated his experience of calling upon Irani three years ago.

“She had come to Tiloi (an assembly constituency in Amethi) for some function and I went to seek help from her because some BJP workers had been harassing me. I managed to reach her but the moment I told her of my problem, she shouted at me and said the Congress had sent me to disrupt her programme. I told her I had voted for her in 2019 but she kept shouting. This would never have happened if Rahul was our MP. We could always go to Rahul, Priyanka or Kishori Lal when they came to Amethi and they would hear us patiently. We made a blunder by electing Irani and we have been suffering because of that for five years,” Prasad said.

Hate politics

What seems to have also irked many in Amethi is Irani’s visceral hatred for the Gandhis and her inability to engage in civilised criticism.

“Yes, many voted against Rahul in 2019 but that was not because Amethi had a personal grudge against him. Some voted for Irani because they felt having a BJP MP would help further develop Amethi since (Narendra) Modi was certain to return as PM, some got taken in by Irani’s promises that have remained unfulfilled while some were genuinely upset at Rahul’s absence from the constituency. Today, ask anyone in Amethi and they will tell you that while they can be upset with the Gandhis, they will never hate them. Our bond with that (Nehru-Gandhi) family is very strong even today and no one will tolerate the kind of language Irani uses for Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,” said Kamalganj resident Chetram.

Among the recurring accusations that Irani hurls at the Gandhis is that Amethi remained a backward constituency, shorn of any sign of development, under their watch. She routinely accuses the Gandhis of being “land sharks” who have “cheated Amethi’s people and robbed them of their lands”. Sadly for Irani, it’s a narrative that finds little resonance on the ground in Amethi.

“She does not know what she is saying. Whatever Amethi has today is only because of the Gandhi family. They brought factories and educational institutes to Amethi; they ensured better rail connectivity. What has she done in the last five years except building a big house for herself? When the Gandhis come to Amethi, they stay in a guest house... whose land have they grabbed? On the contrary, everyone in Amethi knows how Smriti Irani got land for her house in Amethi and who paid for its construction,” a Gauriganj resident told The Federal, requesting anonymity.

This resident alleged that Irani “forced” a local BJP worker to transfer his land to her for building her house, while another local BJP leader who made a fortune selling spices and eventually headed the Amethi Nagar Panchayat “paid for the construction of her house”.

Over the past five years, several establishments that were set up in Amethi when Rahul Gandhi or others from his party represented the seat in Lok Sabha have either been shut down permanently or have been rendered nearly defunct. Among these are the Hindustan Paper Mill, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Information Technology and the Footwear Design and Development Institute.

Congress is hopeful

Congress candidate Sharma attributes these closures to “Irani’s vindictive politics”.

“She says the Gandhi family didn’t do anything for Amethi and Rae Bareli. Fact is she has spent the last five years trying to shut down whatever the Gandhis built. What kind of politics is this? She even got the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital shut down because a patient died there. Is there any hospital in the world that has been forced to shut down because of the death of one patient? The only reason she forced the state government to suspend the hospital’s license was because the hospital was built by the efforts of the Gandhi family. The people of Amethi have seen all this and it is they, not I, who Irani is facing in this election. Amethi wants to return to the path of progress and Irani will soon return to Delhi to hunt for another constituency,” Sharma said.

Come June 4, India will know whether Sharma’s words were prophetic or if the discontent visible on the ground against Irani is nothing more than ambient noise characteristic of a high-stakes poll battle. For now what is certain, though, is that the contest in Amethi is no cakewalk for Irani even in the absence of Rahul as her poll rival.