Raebareli wants ‘attention’, not just Gandhi tag: ‘Even Emotions have a shelf life’

Sitting with other Congress leaders around a large wooden table, Amit Mishra, the secretary of the party’s city committee, says he is hurt that Rahul Gandhi did not get out of his jeep when the recent Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra wound its way through Raebareli town.

“Aap pariwar ka rishta kehte hain par (The Gandhis call us family and yet)… Rahul was welcomed at 29 spots in Rae Bareli, he could have stepped out of his vehicle at any of these places,” he says.

As some of the veterans talk fondly of the Gandhi family and how Raebareli has always voted “emotionally”, Mishra is visibly uneasy.

And then, he spells out what frames the Congress’s biggest challenge in this party pocket borough: “Raebareli mein party workers ko attention chahiye… Emotions ki bhi umra hoti hai (The party workers in Raebareli want attention. Even emotions have a shelf life).”

With the Congress announcing its first list of candidates for 29 Lok Sabha seats, Raebareli and Amethi, the two seats that are considered the party’s pocket borough in the heartland, are still up in the air.

While Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 loss to Smriti Irani in Amethi still rankles, the party will be desperate to hold on to Raebareli – the only seat it won from the state in the 2019 elections. A win or loss here will determine the Congress’s future in the heartland and send out signals right down to the grassroots.

With Sonia Gandhi declaring herself unavailable for the Lok Sabha contest and the BJP determined to chip away the last vestiges of Congress influence here, cadres and other old-timers are aware that the road to Raebareli is unlikely to be a smooth one.

Which is why, as Mishra says, the party can’t afford to take chances. The discussion around the table at the office of the Congress