High profile Rae Bareli bypoll tomorrow

Rae Bareli, May 7: The crucial bypoll to the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat would be held tomorrow where AICC president Sonia Gandhi is seeking a re-election following her resignation after the office of profit controversy.

On March 23, Ms Gandhi had resigned from the Lok Sabha seat and from the chairpersonship of National Advisory Council (NAC) after the Opposition, mainly the BJP and Samajwadi Party, charged her with holding offices of profit while being a Lok Sabha member.

The polling for the bypolls would be held tomorrow, while the counting of votes would be held on May 11.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is tipped to win the elections by a landslide margin and is expected to increase her lead on the other candidates from the victory she got during 2004 general elections.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Friday issued notices to leaders having official security, including Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi and various other leaders, to leave the high-profile Rae Bareli constituency by 1700 hrs yesterday -- the last day of campaigning.

However, Ms Priyanka Vadra, younger sibling of Rahul and an SPG protectee, would stay here since she has been appointed the election agent of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, seeking re-election.

The EC notice also directed all the candidates in the fray for the May 8 bypoll, including Ms Gandhi, BJP's Vinay Katiyar and Samajwadi Party's Rajkumar Choudhary to remove all posters, hoardings and banners immediately,which have been posted without the permission of the Municipal Corporation.

Last time Ms Gandhi had won by about 2.5 lakh votes. With a little less than 50 per cent of the total 1.3 million voters turning out. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party had finished second, followed by the BSP. BJP was relegated to the third slot.

This time BJP, which held the seat only twice in 1996 and 1998, is making an all out effort to improve its performance.

Despite torrid weather conditions, electioneering has been quite hectic. To beat the heat, leaders of various parties and candidates fan out into interior villages and the stress is more on street corner meetings and door-to-door contacts.

Congress star campaigner Rahul Gandhi has forged ahead of others in wooing the voters by touring remote and dusty villages, appealing to women in particular to turn out in large numbers and vote for his mother Sonia Gandhi. She herself addressed series of election meetings across the constituency during her two day visit to the constituency.

Not to be left behind, Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav, son of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, took out a cycle rally in the constituency to attract voters. Cycle is the election symbol of the Samajwadi Party. Samajwadi Party, which has four of the five assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituency in its kitty, has fielded greenhorn Raj Kumar Chaudhary, whose only claim to fame is that he is the son-in-law of former union minister Beni Prasad Verma.

BJP's rabble-rouser Vinay Katiyar entered the fray relucantly after much persuasion by the party leadership. For the saffron party, matters have become more difficult as expelled BJP leader Uma Bharti is backing Mr Prabha Singh Lodhi of the Apna Dal. For BJP, the party's cause has been championed by its President Rajnath Singh and senior leaders Sushma Swaraj and Kalraj Mishra.

Vinay Katiyar, however, did not get much backing from his party seniors who were pre-occupied with visiting Pramod Mahajan, who died of gun shot injuries.

Rahul Gandhi, while taking the electorate down the memory lane, reminded them of the contributions of Mrs Indira Gandhi,Mr Rajiv Gandhi and Mrs Sonia Gandhi for the development of the constituency.

Repeatedly attacking Samajawdi Party government in the state, he said it has done nothing for the uplift of the area.

What was worse, he said, the state government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav was throwing spanner in the development work sanctioned by the Centre for the constituecny. SP leaders, however, rubbished the claim. BJP leaders have accused the Gandhi family of neglecting development in Rae Bareli and described Sonia's resignation from Lok Sabha as a ''false sacrifice''.

BJP chief Rajanth Singh described Congress as a ''private limited company'' for making Rahul the manager and Priyanka the poll agent ''as if there is no local leader for the job.'' However, dismissing the charge, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, without naming any political party, said some of them were indulging in ''selfish politik'' for post and power.

There are in all 16 contestants in the state whose fate will be decided by 13.60 lakh electorate. With a sizeable section of Dalit voters in the constituency, the Congress President has got a boost with BSP leader Mayawati and LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan extending their support to her.

In the 16 polls held since 1952 in the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency -- considered an invincible Congress citadel and a pocketborough of the Gandhi family -- the opposition has been able to win the seat only thrice, while Congress captured it 13 times.

Barring BJP candidate Vinay Katiyar, all others in the fray against Mrs Sonia Gandhi, are contesting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time.

UNI

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