Priyanka and Varun Gandhi may have been hogging the national limelight highlighting mutual differences through verbal onslaughts on each other but the constituencies represented by their mothers — Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Maneka Gandhi (Pilibhit) — have striking similarities though the two places are 400 kms away from each other. Both are represented in Parliament by daughters-in-law of the illustrious Gandhi family, both are fiefdoms to its representatives but while one (Rae Bareli) seems to be on the zenith of the development ladder, the other (Pilibhit) is at its nadir.
Pilibhit will go to polls on Thursday while votes will be caste in Rae Bareli on April 30. What Rae Bareli is for the Congress, Pilibhit perhaps is for the BJP because at both places winnability does not count but what counts is the victory margin. “This time I am expecting you to ensure victory for me by over three lakh votes,” said Maneka.
Pilibhit has been represented by Maneka five times — twice as Independent and three times on a BJP ticket while in previous Parliamentary polls she fielded her son, Varun from here and he too won owing to the clout her mother has in Pilibhit which is considered to be the sugar bowl of Uttar Pradesh and is dominant by Sikhs, the main reason why Maneka Gandhi had been winning from here for consecutive terms.
A large number of Sikhs living in Pakistan at the time of the Partition were asked to live in Pilibhit under the special rehabilitation package of the new Indian Government in 1947. Development had neverbeen an issue for Pilibhit because the Sikhs who support Maneka are wealthy enough to have all fruits of developments assorted in their farmhouse which are symbols of richness in this Terai region.
While in Rae Bareli, neither the Samajwadi Party and nor the Bahujan Samaj Party have fielded candidates but in Pilibhit both parties and also the Congress have fielded their nominees but they are not fit enough for winning the Assembly polls. The Congress has fielded Sanjay Kapoor from Pilibhit. Kapoor has lost the Assembly polls from Bilaspur segment thrice. While the BSP has given ticket to the fomer Minister, Anees Ahmed Khan, the ruling Samajwadi Party has backed its hope on Budhsen Verma, a former chief of the Zila Panchayat. Both are not politically strong enough to face a powerful candidate like Maneka Gandhi.
“Here there is no wave favouring the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, yet she will win because she has won from Pilibhit twice as an Independent and this is a political compulsion for the BJP to give her a ticket from here if the lotus party wants a sure seat in Parliament in the crucial elections of 2014,” Alok Sharma, a resident of Sahukara locality in Pilibhit told The Pioneer.
Keeping in mind a large presence of Sikhs in this constituency, the Congress though has held a meeting in Puranpur here which was addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but that also failed to make any impact to change pro-Maneka sentiments of Sikhs here. In Previous Parliamentary polls, the Congress has fielded VM Singh, a relative of Maneka Gandhi against Varun but Singh had lost though he had been a legislator from one of the total five Assembly segments in this vast Parliamentary constituency.