BJP's Maneka Gandhi locked in keen contest against SP's RB Nishad in Sultanpur

Sultanpur: In Sultanpur, next door to Amethi, another Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi of the BJP, is locked in a keen contest with her Samajwadi Party rival.

Mayawati-led BSP's party nominee Udraj Verma, who hails from OBC Kurmi caste, is causing trouble to the BJP as well as the SP candidates but Akhilesh Yadav-headed SP candidate Ram Bhual Nishad is at a greater loss. Verma threatens to divide the OBC votes of the SP.

Contesting from the Sultanpur seat in Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive time, Maneka Gandhi had won the previous poll by a margin of around 14,000 votes. She is working hard to register a victory with a comfortable margin this time.

Maneka Gandhi told PTI in an interview that her focus is on the local issues and asserted that her victory margin will be bigger this time.

She is mostly fending for herself so far. Among the top leaders of the BJP, only UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has campaigned in Sultanpur which goes to polls in the sixth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on May 25.

Adityanath addressed a meet in her favour in Qazipur on Wednesday.

Her son Varun Gandhi, who was denied the saffron party nomination from Pilibhit this time, is expected to join her in the campaign on the last day of campaigning on Thursday.

Neither her nephew Rahul Gandhi nor niece Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have come to canvass against her either.

Mayawati did turn up in Sultanpur on Wednesday and attacked both the BJP and the Congress.

Maneka Gandhi says neither Ram Mandir nor the denial of ticket to Varun Gandhi is an election issue in her constituency as people are more concerned about their problems and responses of the MP towards their concerns.

She said the people of her constituency are happy over the coming up of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya but "it is not an issue in the polls here".

"I don't look at the people coming to me with their needs from caste or communal angles. Everybody in the constituency belongs to me and I hold the responsibility for their better future," she said.

In an interview to PTI, the eight-time Lok Sabha MP said she is only concerned about the problems of her constituency and does not wish to comment on the BJP's call to wipe out the Congress from Rae Bareli.

"I have no comments to make... I am concerned about the problems of my own constituency and the people here," she told PTI, when asked about the BJP's promise to wipe out the Nehru-Gandhi family from Rae Bareli.

Amethi and Rae Bareli are close to the Sultanpur district. While Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Rae Bareli this time, Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist K L Sharma is pitted against Smriti Irani in Amethi.

The BJP is confident of gaining around two lakh voters of the fishermen community in Sultanpur with their leader and Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad becoming a minister in the Adityanath government.

Sultanpur bifurcated from Amethi in 2010.

Varun Gandhi was its first MP while Maneka swapped seats with him in 2019 and is contesting for the second consecutive time.

R K Verma, BJP's district president, said the people here have positive thinking for "Modi-Yogi" (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Adityanath). Common people have received toilet, house and free foodgrains under varied schemes, he said.

"Maneka ji helps whosoever comes to her for assistance without seeing one's 'jaat-dharma' (caste and religion)," he said.

SP spokesman Anoop Sanda says Maneka is not a permanent resident here. She comes from Delhi and stays here for a week or 10 days every month.

"She doesn't go beyond five km of the town on the normal days," he said, adding that the people look at Akhilesh Yadav positively.

"Maneka Gandhi is a kind lady. She does not question anybody's jaat-dharma while solving people's problems," said Ram Bihari in Sultanpur Bazar.

Another resident Manoj Kumar said Maneka Gandhi is a big leader and gets the problems of her constituency solved with the help of the prime minister and other central ministers.

Maneka Gandhi has gone to campaign in the Muslim-dominated areas too.

"She doesn't discriminate on caste and religious lines against anybody coming to her with the problem," says Kamaruddin Alam, a resident.

Shayam Chand Srivastava of Qazipur town area says anybody can approach Maneka Gandhi with their problems, irrespective of the fact whether the person is her voter or not.