It's the family of the 5-term MLA, late Akhilesh Singh, and his daughter Aditi Singh (FILE)
Whether it was represented by the Congress, Peace Party, BJP or an Independent, the Rae Bareli Sadar seat has remained within one family for almost three decades now. The segment is part of the parliamentary seat held by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
It's the family of the five-term MLA, the late Akhilesh Singh, and his daughter Aditi Singh, both of whom have had their trysts with the Congress and the Gandhi family.
The seat in the high-profile Congress bastion was last outside the family in 1991--when the Janata Dal and the Janata Party were top contenders and India yet to open eyes to a more liberal economy.
Last week, just days ahead of the February 23 Assembly polls here, Aditi Singh (34) made an emotional appeal to voters, launching on social media a short documentary of his father. She seeks another term to fulfil his dreams for Rae Bareli.
She was elected as a Congress candidate in 2017 but switched over to the BJP in 2021, after a bout of attacks on the grand old party, which boasted of familial ties with Rae Bareli since the Indira Gandhi days.
This time, Aditi Singh's appeal in poll campaigns focused on the "rich legacy" of her father, who passed away in August 2019 due to cancer.
The Samajwadi Party, which has fielded RP Yadav, a grassroot-level party worker, dubbed Akhilesh Singh's regime as a "legacy tainted and mired in crime" and claimed it would take the seat out of the family clutches in this election.
The Congress too has launched an all-out campaign against Aditi Singh, calling her a betrayer. It has fielded Manish Chauhan, an eminent doctor with political lineage in the city.
"In 1993, there were discussions about Akhilesh Singh contesting the elections from Rae Bareli (Sadar). No one had any idea that Akhilesh Singh, who was fighting his first poll, would become the cornerstone of Rae Bareli's politics in times to come," says the documentary on Akhilesh Singh.
"His relation with people was such that no equation could cut him off from people. Whichever party had a wave in UP, Rae Bareli would choose Akhilesh Singh only," the documentary added.
Considered a strongman, Akhilesh Singh had declared being accused in eight criminal cases including one case each of murder and extortion, while five of intimidation, according to his 2012 election affidavit.
His electoral campaign began in 1993, when he contested as the Congress candidate and won.
He continued his winning streak in 1996 and 2002 also but after that relations between him and the Congress soured.
Akhilesh Singh was expelled from the Congress but he fought the 2007 election as an independent candidate, winning by 76,603 votes.
Congress candidate Rudra Pratap Singh was the runner up with 29,892 votes. By the next elections he had joined the Peace Party and won the 2012 polls with 75,588 votes. Samajwadi Party's Ram Pratap Yadav was the runner up with 46,094 votes.
Samajwadi Party's Rae Bareli president Veerendra Yadav claimed that Rae Bareli (Sadar) has not developed despite being the district headquarters in all these years.
He said city roads are broken, villages have road connectivity problems, poor localities do not get clean drinking water and health care infrastructure is not up to the mark even today.
"Development is not possible when right public representatives are not elected," he told PTI.
"The father of the current MLA was also the MLA for 25 years. They did not do development work. They only looted Rae Bareli. They had a gang engaged in extortion. They only developed themselves and some of their supporters," MrYadav alleged.
He noted that having an MLA from a different party than which has government in the state impacts growth prospects of any constituency and that has also happened with Rae Bareli.
"Rae Bareli (Sadar) is the only seat in UP where a Samajwadi Party candidate has never won an election. But this time, it is going to happen. The Samajwadi Party candidate will win," he said.
Rae Bareli Congress president Pankaj Tiwari said his party has always had a dominance in the Sadar seat. "The people of the district have affection for Sonia ji, Priyanka ji and Rahul ji and consider them their family members and they also consider people of Rae Bareli as their family members," Mr Tiwari told PTI.
He claimed Aditi Singh is now already engaged in a fight within the BJP and accused her of betraying the Congress by joining the BJP for her personal gains. "The people of Rae Bareli are angry. She betrayed them. She had won on the Congress symbol. Party workers had also worked hard to ensure her victory. Now we have Manish Chauhan, a simple man who has been with the people of the constituency all the time. He will win," Mr Tiwari said.
He said development work for Rae Bareli has been done only by the Congress right from the times of Indira Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi.
"The Congress has not been in power in UP for the last 32 years. But Sonia Gandhi is the Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli and ensured some development," he said, citing projects like AIIMS and modern rail coach factory in the district.
In her election speech, Sonia Gandhi had on Monday slammed the BJP for meting out "step motherly" treatment to her constituency.
During the virtual address, Mrs Gandhi had also urged the people of Rae Bareli to vote for Congress candidates to ensure development.
Rae Bareli (Sadar), which has 3.64 lakh voters, goes to polls on Wednesday. Election results will be declared on March 10.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)