What is in a surname? Ask Rae Bareli

The sprawling campus of Feroze Gandhi Engineering College overlooking a highway is part of the political heritage of Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli. A VIP constituency for decades, Rae Bareli is considered synonymous with the Congress.
Barely a hundred metres away, Gopal Saraswati Vidya Mandir marks the presence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ideological fount Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Atal Bhavan on the Ratapur Road symbolises the BJP’s increasing influence in the area and the party’s attempt to make inroads into the last bastion of the Gandhi family in Uttar Pradesh.
But a strong emotional connection with the Gandhi family continues despite the changing electoral equations. Hemant Rathore, a professor of computer sciences at the Feroze Gandhi Engineering College, credited the Gandhis for whatever development has happened in the area. “We have AIIMS [All India Institute Of Medical Science], Rail coach factory, ITI [Industrial Training Institute], engineering college, NIFT [National Institute of Fashion Technology], National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research. And frankly, the current government after working for 10 years can no more blame Congress…”
In an area where most educated people go to Noida, Delhi, and Punjab for better jobs, English medium schools have mushroomed. “Everyone wants to learn English for better jobs,” said Anshu Tiwari, a student. The per capita land holding is less here compared to that in western Uttar Pradesh, forcing the young population to seek jobs elsewhere.
Yet Congress supporters are counting on the projects that have come to the district courtesy of the Gandhis.
Congress’s district chief Pankaj Tiwari said the people want the Gandhi family here. “The attachment is deep and it is not just an emotional bond. People want the Gandhi family for what they have done,” he said on Thursday a day before Rahul Gandhi was named as the party’s candidate from Rae Bareli.
Rahul Gandhi, who also contested from Kerala’s Wayanad, lost the Amethi seat to Union minister Smriti Irani in 2019. The Congress has named Kishori Lal Sharma as its candidate from Amethi this time.
The BJP hopes to wrest Rae Bareli on the back of the development model of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
At Atal Bhavan, the BJP’s Rae Bareilly in charge Birendra Gautam claimed Congress has become a “private limited company”. “We have been working at the booth level for eight months. We did a campaign for beneficiaries at the booth level. At least four meetings have been held with our booth-level teams. We have done a cultural campaign, ‘Dalit basti sampark abhiyan’, a special drive for women and youth for the past eight months. We have a lot to speak about since we [BJP] formed the government in 2014.”
Pushpen Singh, a BJP leader, argued that they have continued gaining ground since 2014 when the party bagged 173000 votes in Rae Bareli. “In 2019, we got 367000 votes. The situation is changing. Between 2019 and 2024, Sonia Gandhi did not even come here. Earlier, the Congress had members of legislative council and the district council. Now they have lost everything.”
The Gandhis have represented Rae Bareli since 1952. Rahul Gandhi’s grandfather, Feroze Gandhi, won the seat in 1952 and 1957. His grandmother Indira Gandhi was the Rae Bareli Member of Parliament (MP) between 1967 and 1977. She returned to parliament in 1980 after losing in the 1977 election post-Emergency. But Indira Gandhi chose to represent a seat in Andhra Pradesh. From 2004, Sonia Gandhi remained the Rae Bareli MP.