New Delhi: The epic war between the Gandhis has begun in two adjacent Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. While the Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Amethi, nearly 34 km away its his cousin Varun Gandhi the BJP candidate is battle ready from Sultanpur Lok Sabha berth.
None of the brothers had either campaigned against each other nor had spoken against one another in public. Despite being in rival outfits they maintain a respectable distance from each other, when it comes to politics.
Some feel that Varun's silence against Rahul is the later's gain and BJP’s “loss” and vise versa. Not all in BJP are happy about Varun’s “prinicple stand” on his cousins.
The supporters of these two camps are not concerned about the victories of the Gandhi brothers but the victory margin. Interestingly even for the BJP supporters in Sultanpur Rahul Gandhi’s victory from Amethi is a foregone conclusion. A BJP supporter at Kurwar in Sultanpur said, “Rahul Gandhi is winning there is no doubt about that. Varun Gandhi too will sweep Sultanpur.”
The main cause of concern for the BJP workers in Sultanpur is the victory margin. “We want Varunji to get a bigger margin than Rahul Gandhi,” they said.
In one of the public meetings a local speaker exhorted the crowd, “Lets make Varun Gandhi win with a record margin.” Mr Gandhi had won with a margin of around three lakh votes from Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency during the last general elections. He has vacated the constituency for his mother, Maneka.
In Amethi the clash between Rahul Gandhi and AAP candidate Kumar Vishwash continued to intensify with the later visiting nearly 500 villages in the constituency. Reports from Amethi indicated that Mr Vishwas has activated some PR agencies to contact voters over mobile phones. If Mr Vishwas is trying to be a giant killer, it's BSP which has emerged Varun Gandhi’s main rival. Speaking to the media, Varun Gandhi went on record saying that BSP has emerged as the main rival at many places in UP.
