Amethi: The imposing 450-year-old gates of Bhupathi Bhavan, the residence of the erstwhile raja of Amethi, have seen a great deal of history. Some moments are precious, some best forgotten. The UP Assembly elections have revived some of those moments.
In 1989, Garima Singh, the first wife of Congress MP Sanjay Singh, also the scion of the royal family of Amethi, was turned away from these gates. She had wept and begged to be let in, but the gates did not open.
When she returned in 2014 with her son and daughters, history was repeated. But this time, the people from adjoining villages came out to support her. Clashes with the police ensued, and one policeman was killed. Ms Garima’s son, Anant Vikram Singh, was sent to jail. “I have returned to Amethi to seek justice. I have been waiting for 27 years and now I have come back to my people,” she says with a lump in her throat.
Garima Singh, the BJP candidate on Amethi Assembly seat, is certainly not a politician. She is not adept at giving speeches and simply folds her hands and reminds people of the work done by her father-in-law, Raja Rananjay Singh, and promises to carry forward his dreams.
She does not even utter a word about her rival and her husband’s second wife, Ameeta Sinh, who is the Congress candidate on the seat.
Anant Vikram Singh, Ms Garima’s son, and his sisters Mahima and Shaivya, have come down to help their mother in the campaign.
Ms Garima is getting the sympathy of the people in full measure. “We are all with the dadi rani. There is no politics involved in our decision,” says Sushila Devi, a member of a self-help group launched by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Ameeta Sinh, who won the seat thrice, is now trying to wrest it back from the SP MLA Gayatri Prajapati. She shrugs off the competition from Ms Garima.
“People are not casting their votes to settle family issues. They are voting for development which I have done,” she adds.
On Ms Garima’s candidature, she says, “They have given a ticket to a person who has no base in the constituency.”
