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Navratri: Symbolism to the fore as Congress, BJP send puja material to Amethi temples
The list of temples selected by BJP and the Congress is nearly the same and so is the puja kit that the workers and leaders of the two parties have delivered to the temples in Amethi.
Political symbolism with a religious flavour has come to the fore in the former Congress bastion Amethi during the ongoing nine-day Navratri festival. Both the Congress and the BJP are out to make a point there during the celebrations.
For instance, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has sent puja material for temples, besides clothes and fruits for temple priests in Amethi. The BJP immediately noticed the gesture and sought to counter it by showcasing a similar move by Union minister Smriti Irani who defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in 2019.
The list of temples selected by BJP and the Congress is nearly the same and so is puja kit that the workers and leaders of the two parties have delivered to the temples in Amethi.
There is much speculation on if party leader Rahul Gandhi or his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, currently active in UP, would contest the seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
While the Congress is yet to clear the air on the subject, the gestures by the two parties, locals interpret, are part of the BJP’s plan to hold on to its electoral gains in the region and part of the Congress’s “soft Hindutva” symbolism to reclaim lost ground.
“It for the Gandhis to take a call. But, as of now, it is getting clearer that anyone from the Congress first family, be it Rahul or Priyanka, may contest from here in the 2024 LS poll,” said Irshad Ilmi.
The locals in Amethi said this was the first occasion when the Congress had sent puja material for temples and priests on Navratri.
The Congress’ first family, the Gandhis, have been helping the people in other ways in the past. The party leaders have consistently maintained that they share a bond that is beyond politics with Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Despite its 2019 loss in the LS polls, the Congress leadership has maintained a connect with people in Amethi, much in the same way as Smriti Irani had remained active in the constituency despite losing to Rahul Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.
In May 2021, during the Covid surge, the Congress leadership had sent oxygen concentrators, masks and sanitisers for the people in Amethi. The party also ran a sanitization campaign. The BJP quickly got its government in UP to sanction a Covid testing laboratory, which officials said would help people of the adjoining regions of Rae Bareli, Sultanpur and Pratapgarh – territories that the Congress dominated once.
Congress district chief Pradeep Singhal, who unsuccessfully contested from the Tiloi assembly constituency and is considered close to Gandhis, has been tasked with the exercise of ensuring that the puja material has been delivered.
“Our leaders have said it repeatedly that they share a personal bond with the region. This is merely a reaffirmation of the same,” Singhal said.
In adjoining Rae Bareli, MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh, a key aide of the Gandhis, has now been made a minister of state in the Yogi 2.0 government.
Singh had quit the Congress in 2018 and unsuccessfully contested against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Dinesh is now contesting the April 9 MLC (local authorities’) polls on the BJP ticket. His elevation as a UP minister is being seen as part of the BJP plan to rattle the Congress in their lone surviving Lok Sabha bastion in UP.
In the 2017 UP assembly polls, the Congress had won just two of the 10 assembly seats that make the Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies. Both the victories were in Rae Bareli.
In the 2022 UP assembly polls, those two Congress MLAs Aditi Singh and Rakesh Pratap have become lawmakers again, but on the BJP symbol.
