The Amethi Diary

Puja Awasthi, TIR, 6 May 2014 : At 12.35 pm, Congress supporters come face to face with those of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). For a few tense minutes the competing cries of ‘Jag gaya bhai jag gaya, aam aadmi jag gaya’ (The common man has woken) and ‘Rahul Gandhi zindabad’ (Long live Rahul Gandhi) reach a crescendo, and then the police steps in. Order is restored.

The scene is played out in front of the Congress office at Gauriganj, the headquarters of Amethi- a district of five constituencies carved out of Rae Bareli and Sultanpur. Kumar Vishwas- the AAP candidate has chosen to undertake a road show which goes by the Congress office tantalisingly close to when the Gandhi kafila is due. An obviously delighted Vishwas waves out to a knot of journalists standing by to cover Rahul Gandhi’s nomination slated for later in the day.

Mohammed Hussain observes this from his stationery and cold drink shop across the road and dubs it a ‘tamasha’. “They are running their campaign on paid people”, he declares referring to the AAP supporters- many of whom wave jhadoos- the party symbol.

Mohd Azhar a former gram pradhan of Bahua Miragarh village, who is sitting at a nearby two wheeler repair shop, says that the claims of the opposition are false. “They ask what has Rahul Gandhi done? There was no road to my village- now there are four. We have electricity 24 hours a day when the state government does not play mischief. But most importantly you do not break off such an old relationship. These new comers think they can sway us”, he scoffs.

So strong is the identification of the Nehru Gandhi name with the constituency that it has only twice chosen non Congress members for its MP. Of these, one was Sanjay Gandhi who lost in 1977 post the Emergency. Its five Assembly constituencies however forge a different path and only two went to the Congress in the state election of 2012 while in neighbouring Rae Bareli- the Congress drew a blank.

Shiv Bhushan Tiwari, a panchayat level leader however dismisses these numbers, and says that it is a matter of ‘garima’ (pride) that the Gandhi family chooses the constituency. “Who would have known us otherwise”, he asks. For Tiwari, the AAP is a non entity, though he does not dismiss the Modi hawa. “Our task”, he says, “is to ensure the biggest ever victory margin for Rahulji”.

Going by the trend this should not be a challenge. While in 2004, Gandhi’s margin of victory was 2.81 lakh votes, in 2009 this went up to 3.7 lakh.

Yet there is an undercurrent of worry. Yogendra Mishra, president of the party’s Tiloi unit says, “Many things are up in the air. We cannot be lax in this election”.

May 2, 2014

Kumar Vishwas is worried and angry in equal measure. Standing in the compound of the police kotwali, he is repeating “Mujhko gaali kyun di” (why did they abuse me). The gaggle of supporters around him narrates an oft repeated story of AAP workers being beaten up by Congress people. . Today it has been particularly vicious with one worker ending up with a broken arm. There is also talk of a car with tinted glasses carrying arms. They say the police have been unwilling to listen to them, and the media is hostile.

Shefali Mishra- the party’s candidate from Sitapur who has arrived to campaign for Vishwas says, “This is very difficult for him. At least I was allowed to campaign”.

Later at the AAP campaign office- which operates out of a semi finished basement in Amethi’s main market, workers pick up placards that say that they will not be violent no matter what the provocation and set out for the streets.

Yet there are clear signs of fatigue in the campaign which has continued for close to three months. Sandeep Kumar, a volunteer from Delhi says that he had thought of helping out in Varanasi as well but is very tired now. The 25 year old claims to have left his job to help the party, but on further prodding admits that he never had one. “These things are more important” he says.

Harish Mishra, an insurance sector professional from Dubai says that he is on long leave to do his bit for the party. “I have never bothered with the elections. But this time is different”, he says standing against a temporary partition on which a sticker says how Vishwas’ poems can be downloaded onto mobile phones.

Vishwas himself is showing signs of exhaustion as he flops on a mattress to speak to the media. He says that the Congress is bewildered and that Priyanka Gandhi has been so disappointed with the response in Amethi that she has left the campaign mid way. This is untrue- but the comment on the disquiet in the Congress camp is not off the mark.

There is desperation in the AAP camp as well- just a day earlier Arvind Kejriwal has labelled those voting for the Congress and BJP “traitors”. Vishwas attempts a weak defence. “Those parties are not bothered about national interest”, he says skirting the question on the choice of the word.

He is angry with the media which he says is used to a “set narrative” and has turned against AAP. But when told that it was the media which hyped the anti corruption movement and then the party, he retorts, “Those were facts”.

Fact and perception, claim and counter claim have so intermingled in Amethi this election season that it is now difficult to sort them out.

But soon we shall know.