RAE BARELI: Congress party President Sonia Gandhi yesterday filed her nomination papers to contest the Lok Sabha election from this Gandhi family bastion in Uttar Pradesh, with roaring crowds promising to elect her by record margins.
People went delirious as the Congress president drove through the thickly populated parts of Rae Bareli town. Slogans rent the air, as her small motorcade drove past the streets. Many showered rose petals on the cars. The mass of Congress supporters vowed to send her back to the Lok Sabha by improving her victory margin of 417,000 votes of 2004.
“Our endeavor is to see her creating yet another record by increasing her victory margin,” said 70-year-old Shiv Pratap Misra, who has been wedded to the Congress and the Gandhi family since 1967 when Indira Gandhi, Sonia’s mother-in-law and prime minister for 16 long years, first entered the electoral fray from here.
Rae Bareli will go the polls April 30 in the third phase of India’s staggered elections. This is the third time Sonia is contesting from Rae Bareli. Posters on the walls of Rae Bareli reminded people about the constituency’s old links with the Gandhi family. Adhering to the norms laid down by the Election Commission, Sonia, dressed in a beige saree with a red and green print, and her son Rahul got off their vehicle outside the gates of the collectorate. Guarded by the Special Protection Group, they walked 100 meters to reach the returning officer’s chamber.
Four sets of nomination papers were filed by her. District Congress committee chief Uma Shankar Misra and party legislators Raja Ram Tyagi, Ashok Singh and Shiv Ganesh Lodhi were the proposers. Walking down the roads in Rae Bareli or driving along its rural spread, the support for Sonia was overwhelming and cut across economic, caste and religious divides.
Both before and after filing the nomination papers, Sonia kept the family traditions going. While a “havan” at the local Congress office preceded the nomination, she drove down to Taklia village to pray at the grave of Maulana Ali Mian, who once headed the Lucknow-based Islamic University Nadwa-tul Ulema Darul-Uloom.
