As Gandhis stall on Amethi, Raebareli, voters warn: ‘Those times are gone when you could win like this’

It is a Sunday afternoon. Sitting with two colleagues and scrolling through his social media feed, Amethi district Congress president Pradeep Singhal says he is confident Rahul Gandhi will again contest from the seat. And, five years after he lost the family seat to the BJP’s Smriti Irani, Singhal says: “He will win.”

Barring the three, the district Congress committee office – more like a refashioned shop space – at Gauriganj in Amethi is empty. There is a larger central Congress office next to it, but it is deserted, just over a month before Amethi votes in the fifth phase on May 20.

Singhal suddenly stops his social media scrolling as he chances upon the “massive turnout” for the nomination filing by a candidate in Banswara in Rajasthan. “Look at the crowd!” he exclaims. “He (the candidate) is on a camel.”

His colleague Sarvesh Kumar Singh hesitatingly points out that the candidate Singhal mistook for the Congress nominee belongs to “some Adivasi party” (the Bharat Adivasi Party’s Rajkumar Roat).

The two reluctantly return to the Amethi campaign. Singhal says Congress preparations will pick up once Rahul’s candidature is announced, adding that Irani, who is a Union minister, has done nothing for the constituency. “The people will reply in kind this time.” Singh says their preparations are “complete”.

To questions as to why Rahul has not been declared the candidate yet, Singh says the announcement will come as soon as voting in Wayanad – the constituency in Kerala from where the Congress leader won in 2019 and is re-contesting – is over on April 26.

But it is just a speculation, with no official reason on offer for the delay; the filing of nominations begins in a fortnight.

Contrary to the listless Congress office, the BJP’s