Modi to take fight against Congress to Sonia citadel
Set to address his first public meeting as PM in Rae Bareli
LUCKNOW: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Rae Bareli on Sunday for the launch of the modern rail coaches made in the rail coach factory there, the BJP would look to use the occasion to rev up the political temperature in this Congress bastion.
This would be Modi’s second visit to Rae Bareli, the first being in 1999 when as the party general secretary he had reportedly coordinated a public meeting in support of Congress rebel turned BJP candidate Arun Nehru.
In April this year, BJP chief Amit Shah had visited this constituency along with chief minister Yogi Adityanath for a public rally, described as BJP’s biggest political rally till then in Rae Bareli.
For the Sunday public meeting that Modi is to address, the BJP is looking to overtake Shah’s rally by some distance, targeting a one lakh plus attendance, according to UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.
“Target is two lakh,” says Ajay Agarwal, a Supreme Court lawyer who contested on BJP ticket from here against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2014.
BJP leaders say a rally by Modi in Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency would have its own meaning as, barring a few exceptions, the party’s association with this Congress bastion has largely been negligible.
“In 1999 the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had turned up to campaign for Congress rebel Arun Nehru who was made a BJP candidate from Rae Bareli. The meeting was coordinated by present Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was the party general secretary
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At Amethi and Rae Bareli, the BJP has conspired to scuttle development projects initiated by the Congress. So the people are watching the BJP’s dirty play and would respond surely
AKHILESH PRATAP SINGH, Congress leader
then,” recalls Agarwal.
BJP leader Vinay Katiyar, who was made to contest from Rae Bareli against Sonia Gandhi in 2006, remembers party leaders Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj turning up to campaign for him. “But it’s equally true that apart from me not many prominent leaders contested after me from Rae Bareli,” says Katiyar.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP veteran Uma Bharti had refused an offer to contest from Rae Bareli and settled for Jhansi instead. The refusal was for good reasons as Rae Bareli has, barring three exceptions 1977, 1996 and 1998, stood with the Congress, electing members of the Nehru-Gandhi family to the Lok Sabha.
On Sunday, state civil aviation minister and minister in-charge for Rae Bareli Nand Gopal Nandi held a meeting regarding preparations for the PM’s visit.
After the meeting, Nandi also inspected the rally venue.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, has already decided to invest his annual Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme funds worth₹5 crore in Rae Bareli.
“After Modi, Jaitley would visit Rae Bareli, possibly in January,” BJP’s Rae Bareli in-charge Hero Bajpai said.
Incidentally, the PM’s Rae Bareli visit will happen within a week of the December 11 assembly election results of five states. Thus party leaders expect sparks to fly during Modi’s two public meetings on December 16, first in Rae Bareli and later in Junsi, Prayagraj, some 100 kilometers away.
“Modi’s last minute visit to Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls had virtually taken the shine away from Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha win and then ensured major embarrassment for the Congress that lost 6 of the 10 assembly segments in Amethi and Rae Bareli in 2017 UP polls,” Bajpai said.
While Union textile minister Smriti Irani is widely tipped to take on the Congress chief Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP hasn’t revealed its plans for Rae Bareli yet.
In April, Amit Shah visited Rae Bareli to oversee the joining of influential Congress MLC from Rae Bareli Dinesh Pratap Singh and his brother Awadhesh, the Rae Bareli district panchayat president, into the BJP. Party leaders say that Dinesh’s other brother, Rakesh, Congress MLA from Rae Bareli’s Harchandpur, too, would join the BJP.
“The Prime Minister is welcome to visit anywhere but let’s get one thing clear that for Congress Amethi and Rae Bareli are like an extended family. The BJP has conspired to scuttle development projects initiated by the Congress. So the people are watching the BJP’s dirty play and would respond surely. The BJP would soon realise as much,” said Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh.