Raebareli ki Barfi

It seems a mini-gathbandhan of sorts is at work to nurture Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Raebareli. District records show it is the only constituency in Uttar Pradesh to receive MPs’ local area development funds from seven parliamentarians, besides Sonia herself—Congress MPs Kapil Sibal and P.L. Punia, Rajya Sabha MP Rekha Ganesan, former Rajya Sabha MPs Satish Sharma and Pramod Tiwari, and the BJP’s Naresh Agarwal. But the surprise benefactor is Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who had chosen Raebareli as his nodal district and spent Rs 2.5 crore from his MPLAD fund.