Akhilesh Yadav’s surprise trip to Sonia Gandhi’s constituency sends firm message

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Rae Bareily, Aug 7, 2013(NDTV): As far as visits go, this one is encoded with huge political significance. This morning, Akhilesh Yadav made a surprise appearance in Rae Bareily, the constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Local officials were unprepared for the arrival of the young Chief Minister in the Rainpur village.

Mr Yadav’s visit comes four days after Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter to the Prime Minister in support of a bureaucrat who has controversially been suspended by the UP government.

His Samajwadi Party reacted sharply to Mrs Gandhi’s intervention.  "If the Centre wants to intervene, let it remove all IAS officers from the state. We will run the state with our own officers," said Ram Gopal Yadav, a party leader who is Mr Yadav’s uncle.

The Samajwadi Party does not participate in the ruling coalition at the Centre, but its 22 Lok Sabha MPs prop up the minority government by lending external support.

Rae Bareily and Amethi, the areas represented in Parliament by Mrs Gandhi and her son, rarely provoke the interest or attention of non-Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh.

So Mr Yadav’s tour today is seen as a pointed rebuke and warning. The official agenda was to review the implementation of a flagship scheme introduced by his government to fund development in backward villages.

In the past, the Samajwadi Party has as a gesture of courtesy not fielded candidates against the Gandhis in their constituencies.  But the chief minister’s trip suggests that could change.

In the last state elections, swept by Mr Yadav, the Congress lost all five seats in Rae Bareily; the Samajwadi Party won four.   In Amethi, which is Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, the Congress won just two of the 10 assembly seats.

Mr Yadav’s party therefore feels that it’s worth it to nurture both areas, since voters seem willing to shift away from the Congress.