Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav to Campaign for INDIA Bloc Nominee in Jhansi on May 14

Rahul Gandhi agreed to campaign for Jain, a former union minister and his close aide, and urged SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to support the joint opposition candidate in former Congress stronghold Jhansi

New Delhi:Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will campaign for his close aide and former union minister Pradeep Jain, who is in the fray from the Jhansi Lok Sabha seat, on May 14. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav will also join the rally to push the prospects of the INDIA bloc nominee.

“Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will hold a joint rally in Jhansi on May 14. This will be their fifth joint rally in the state. The INDIA bloc is doing well and people want a change this time,” AICC in-charge of UP Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat. Jhansi is the most important seat in the Bundelkhand region, which has three other parliamentary seats Banda, Hamirpur and Jalaun. It will have polling on May 20.

Jain had won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Jhansi and was made a junior minister in the rural development ministry at Rahul’s behest during the previous UPA government. The move was aimed at pushing Congress prospects in the backward Bundelkhand region for which Rahul got the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sanction a massive Rs 7,000 crore financial aid.

The financial package was meant for the entire Bundelkhand region divided between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Later, the Congress accused the then BSP government in UP and the BJP government in MP of misappropriating the central package and ignoring the backward Bundelkhand region.

Pradeep Jain was instrumental in mobilising the support of his Jain community in Jhansi. Later, at Rahul’s behest, the UPA government declared Jains as a national minority community to woo the small, but influential community across the country. In 2024, Rahul again opted to campaign for his close aide in Jhansi despite demands from across the country and also mobilised the support of his partner SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to back the former minister.

Jhansi had been a Congress stronghold in the past decades, but shifted to the BJP in 2014 and again in 2019. In 2024, the INDIA bloc decided to counter the saffron party by fielding a joint candidate Pradeep Jain, who would be able to get the support of his Jain community, Yadavs and Dalit votes to swing the fortunes in a close election.

Pradeep Jain is pitted against BJP’s sitting MP Anurag Sharma, who enjoys support among the Brahmins, who have around a lakh votes. Sharma is also banking on the state government’s plans to develop the region as an industrial hub. The BSP has fielded a new face Ravi Prakash Kushwaha whose entry has made the contest in Jhansi triangular.

Jain is countering his rivals by highlighting the old problem of backwardness, which forces the locals to migrate to other parts of the country in search of better education and jobs. He is also questioning the process of land acquisition for the industrial hub saying poor compensation hurts the farmers whose lands are being acquired.

“Besides lacking education and health facilities, the locals suffer from a lack of jobs in the area. Years of neglect have increased the rate of migration. The farmers are suffering due to a lack of irrigation facilities. We are telling them about our promises. The people are looking for change and the alliance workers are working hard to counter the BJP,” Jain told ETV Bharat.