The iconic Naresh hotel on the Lucknow-Rae Bareli national highway NH-24B has seen several elections. The hotel has split into Naresh Sweets and Dinesh hotel but some things about it have not changed. It still remains a compulsory stopover for every visitor to Rae Bareli and the pulse of the entire constituency can be felt from here. “Hotel badal gaya, magar haalaat nahin badle. Aaj bhi yahan din bhar chunav ki charcha hoti hai and Rae Bareli ka dil yahan dhadakta hai,” says Ranveer Srivastava, a retired employee of the ITI (Indian Telephone Industries) that flourished here during the Indira Gandhi regime. Dipping his butter-toast into a cup of steaming tea, he says, “Nothing will change here because emotions for the Gandhi family run high. People were angry earlier because no development was taking place but now that Mrs Sonia Gandhi has brought the rail coach factory, water treatment plant, FM radio station and also a railway line between Rae Bareli and Faizabad. These projects are opening up job avenues for the local youth and nobody wants anything more.”
Vicky, a waiter at the hotel, says that he got the job because of the expanding business of the hotel. “Soniaji comes and so do a lot of people, including journalists, and the hotel gets huge business. If Soniaji was not here, I would not have got my job,” he says quietly. Moving into the interiors in Bachhrawan, roads begin to disappear into potholes but people are no longer bothered. “It is because of the Gandhi family that Rae Bareli has got an identity. We are different from the rest because of Soniaji and as for the roads, we are now used to all this because you have to make small sacrifices for bigger gains,” says Mohammed Ismail, who runs a tiny scooter repair shop, rather philosophically. The anger of the local people for bad roads, erratic power supply and lack of basic amenities was amply reflected in the assembly elections in 2012 when the Congress lost all five assembly seats.
“This was a lesson for the Congress MLAs who did not work. It was their duty to pressurise the state government to resolve issues. The people here know the difference between ‘upar’ (Lok Sabha) and ‘neeche’ (state assembly),” says Shivram Pasi, a local Congress leader.