On Thursday, Sultanpur turned out in its Sunday best to see and hear the man who will, in all probability, contest the next Lok Sabha elections from here.
Men, women and children braved the sizzling heat and waited for hours to see the youngest scion of the Gandhi family.
More than listening to the speeches, there was an intense curiosity to see Varun Gandhi, whose father, late Sanjay Gandhi, had briefly ruled over Sultanpur before his untimely death in 1980.
“We have seen Rahul Gandhi but this time, I have come here to see Varun Gandhi. I have heard a lot about him and I wanted to see and hear him,” said Ravindra Tiwari, an intermediate student who had bunked his coaching classes to attend the rally.
The large turnout of the youth at the rally clearly indicated that the BJP MP had established an instant emotional connect with the local people even before venturing into the interiors of the constituency.
Shakeel, 24, who runs a mobile repairing shop, brought his own stool to sit down at the rally. “I am suffering from jaundice and cannot strain myself but I wanted to see Varun Gandhi at all costs,” he said sipping water from a soda bottle. Varun’s presence obviously had an electrifying impact on the local populace.
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Raman predicts early LS polls
age correspondent
Bemetera (Chhattis-garh), May 16
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Thursday predicted that the political instability currently witnessed at the Centre may force early parliamentary polls in the country.
“The current political situation at the Centre is very fluid. The UPA government at the Centre has been reduced to minority following desertion of some of its major allies in recent times. This has caused instability at the Centre. In this situation, I do not rule of possibility of an early Lok Sabha polls in the country, to be held most probably in November- December this year”, Mr Singh told reporters on the sidelines of his “Vikash Yatra”.