Impact of victory and defeat on the Gandhi family
Impact of victory and defeat on the gandhi family…Since 2019, several opposition leaders, MLAs and local-level elected representatives in Amethi and Rae bareli have either switched sides to strengthen the bjp or tacitly supported it for various reasons. The recent rajya sabha elections in UP gave us a glimpse of how the bjp plans to strengthen its presence in these constituencies. Among the half-a-dozen SP MLAs across the state who cross-voted in favour of the bjp or were conspicuously absent, were those from Amethi and Rae Bareli. The dent in the opposition helped the bjp win an additional seat.Not just this, influential Thakur leader sanjay singh, the former 'Raja of Amethi', also joined the bjp after the 2019 elections along with his wife Ameeta Singh. His former wife Garima Singh had won the Amethi assembly elections on a bjp ticket in 2017. Maharaji Prajapati defeated sanjay singh in 2022. In both its governments in UP since 2017, the bjp has nominated an mla from Amethi as a minister. The political situation in Rae bareli has also changed since 2019.First, Aditi Singh, the Rae bareli Sadar congress mla and daughter of Thakur strongman late Akhilesh Singh, officially joined the bjp in 2021, just before the state elections. Aditi retained her seat on the bjp symbol in 2022. Her father had won from this constituency five times since 1993. In February, Manoj Pandey, who was promoted by akhilesh yadav as the Brahmin data-face of the SP, also switched loyalties to the bjp camp.Recently, 11 local-level SP leaders, including the brother of SP mla Rakesh Pratap Singh, also joined the BJP. These include present and former district panchayat members, present and former block presidents and a former district panchayat president. The political atmosphere and equations in Amethi and Rae bareli have changed since the Modi government came to power at the Centre and the bjp has consistently secured a majority in the state. The failure of the gandhi family after the defeat in 2019 and its casual attitude towards the voters encouraged the bjp to corner the congress in its own stronghold.