Amethi is under-developed, least-represented and devoid of benefits from MP Rahul gandhi. In all the possibility he will lose.
In 2009 general elections, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi won his home seat by 71 percent votes. All the criticism that he had been facing for five years was gone after the results were declared. But a surprising change came when the same constituency went to assembly elections three years later. Congress lost three out of five seats in Amethi.
Rahul is the Congress scion and an unannounced prime ministerial candidate. Till now, media and political circuits have been targeting BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and his development plank. Even Kejriwal’s 49 day government comes under scanner for the same. But no one questions what Rahul did for his constituency.
Now Smriti Irani has been pitted against Rahul by BJP in Amethi. The third person in the fray is Kumar Vishwas from AAP. Vishwas may not be being considered a contender by Irani but the real battle may be between them only. And there are all the chances that Rahul will lose.
How? Let’s have a look at the simple facts from Amethi to understand this.
For starters, the Rahul-constituency did not benefit from MNREGA that the leader fondly talks about in each of his public rallies. As the Daily Mail reports:
Although there are 2,37,853 job card holders in Amethi and 84,734 families have got jobs under the scheme in 2012-13, only 1,250 families have got 100 days of work, according to a report of the rural development ministry of the Union government. The scheme promises 100 days of job in a year to its beneficiaries. The state government has spent about 76 per cent of the total fund sanctioned under the scheme in 2012-13, but in Amethi only 50 per cent of the fund has been utilised. The total budget for the job guarantee scheme for Amethi in 2012-13 was Rs 56 crore.
Another blow comes from the Times of India which says, “only 1 percent of schools in Amethi comply with the Right to Education Act, which is the lowest in a state that is already one of the worst laggards in legislating the new norms.”
Just few years ago, Karaundi village in Amethi had raised slogans “Road Nahi to Vote Nahi” in protest. The opposition AAP, which cannot deny good roads in Gujarat, rues the bad condition of roads in Amethi and Congress too accepts it. IANS reported that a Congress party source said, “Kumar Vishwas’ charge that he sees no real development despite Rahul Gandhi’s claims of spending Rs.55,000 crore here is lapped up.” According to Firstpost, there have also been street protests against a grim power scenario and poor roads in the Munshiganj, Injauna, Jagdishpur and Gauriganj areas.
Vishwas has been camping in Amethi for a month and Rahul seldom visits his constituency. He fails to even represent his people n the parliament! Reportedly, all through the five years of the 15th Lok Sabha, Rahul did not ask a single question in Parliament. He attended only 42.61 percent of the sittings of the Lok Sabha. His attendance record in the standing committees of which he is a member is an abysmal 13.64 percent. Rahul has spent only 53.68 per cent of the MPLADS funds allocated to him.
The Association for Democratic Reforms conducted a poll for the MP’s perception rating and Rahul managed to get only 5.58 out of 10.
Given these circumstances, defeating Rahul will be not a difficult task for Smriti who is considered a hardworking lady and has a dynamic personality which is way better than Rahul’s.
