Bracing for a formidable fight against top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP's candidate and state minister Dinesh Pratap Singh is also facing some discontent in the ruling party's local camp, which has made his challenge tougher. Sulking due to their own separate issues, BJP MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar, Aditi Singh, and the rebel SP MLA from Unchahar, Manoj Kumar Pandey, are fighting shy of campaigning for Dinesh in the constituency. Both are thus giving a tough time to the BJP in mounting a vigorous campaign in Rae Bareli, which has been a traditional Nehru-Gandhi bastion. During his visit to Rae Bareli, Union Home Minister Amit Shah sought to pacify both of them, BJP sources said. Of the Rae Bareli constituency's five Assembly segments, the SP had won four seats – Unchahar, Bacharawan, Harchandpur and Sareni – in the 2022 UP polls. Only the Rae Bareli Sadar seat was won by the BJP's Aditi Singh, who was earlier with the Congress. In the course of his campaigning in Rae Bareli on Sunday, Shah visited Pandey’s house with Dinesh to seek support for the latter. Pandey had supported the BJP's candidate in the February Rajya Sabha polls but he is not backing Dinesh in the Lok Sabha elections. Pandey is a prominent Brahmin leader in Rae Bareli, where the community accounts for about 18% of its population as compared to 11% Thakurs and over 25% Dalits. The three-time Unchahar MLA, Pandey was a key Brahmin face in the previous Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government. Sources said he was hoping to land a BJP ticket for himself from the Rae Bareli seat. Even without an alliance, the SP used to leave Amethi and Raebareli seats for the Congress in the previous polls, which have now been formally allotted to the latter as part of its 17 seats under the seat-sharing deal between them. In the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls, Pandey had quit as the SP's chief whip and cross-voted in favour of the BJP. In Rae Bareli, the BJP renominated Dinesh, a three-time MLC and former Congress leader, who was defeated by Sonia Gandhi by over 1.67 lakh votes in the 2019 polls. Sonia's was the lone seat that the Congress had then managed to win in UP. Several BJP leaders say that Pandey, who has yet to formally join the BJP, is worried that he might lose his Assembly membership if seen openly campaigning for Dinesh. Some other party leaders however say that his “expectation of the BJP ticket and old rivalry with Dinesh” are the “real reasons” behind his current posturing. On the day of Dinesh's filing of nomination papers, several local BJP leaders had also visited Pandey, but he did not accompany the former, even though his son and brother joined the BJP that day. The party had to send Deputy Chief Minister Brijesh Pathak to accompany Dinesh in a bid to send out a signal to the constituency's Brahmin community. Sources said Shah told Pandey that he should support the BJP's candidate and that he would be “rewarded” by the party in due course. Aditi Singh, a Thakur face and daughter of seven-time Rae Bareli MLA late Akhilesh Singh, is also “not visible” in campaigning for the party candidate. At Shah’s public meeting in Rae Bareli, Aditi was present on the dais but did not address the gathering. Shah took her name to reassure her about her salience. On Saturday, she also posted an old picture with her father on ‘X’, stating that it was difficult for her to compromise with her “usool” (principles). Amidst the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Aditi Singh, then a Congress MLA, had alleged that her car was attacked by Dinesh's brother Awadhesh Singh, the then district panchayat chairman. Sources said her differences with Dinesh could not be resolved even after she defected to the BJP and won the 2022 poll on its ticket. Sources said the BJP leadership has told both Aditi and Pandey that they should be thinking beyond the candidate's name and campaign for the party. Rahul is fighting from Rae Bareli as his mother Sonia Gandhi, who represented the seat for about two decades, recently moved to the Rajya Sabha. He was defeated from the neighbouring Amethi seat in the 2019 polls by Union minister Smriti Irani. This time, the Congress has fielded veteran party worker Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi, even as Rahul is again contesting from his Wayanad seat in Kerala too. The Rae Bareli and Amethi seats are going to polls in the fifth phase on May 20.
