Baton leapfrogs in front of Priyanka Grandpa MLA bequeaths slot

Report by TAPAS CHAKRABORTY

Priyanka Vadra talks with party members in Munshiganj on Monday; (below right) Radhe Shyam with his grandfather Ram Sevak. Pictures by Naeem Ansari

Amethi, Jan. 16: Ram Sevak today made an offer that Priyanka Vadra could not refuse, though it made her think twice.

The 90-year-old grandfather walked up to Priyanka this morning with a request: the nine-time MLA from Jagdishpur wanted his name to be dropped from the list of candidates for the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh. In his place, Ram Sevak said, he wanted his grandson Radhe Shyam to contest.

All Ram Sevak was asking for was to reach across a generation and hand over the baton to the next — not an unreasonable request in a country where dynasty after dynasty has found fertile soil.

Priyanka herself does not use the Gandhi surname but she does belong to a family that has become one of the most durable political dynasties in the world.

This morning, while leapfrogging to his grandson’s era, Ram Sevak also forged a bridge across three generations. Forty years ago, Ram Sevak had been introduced to Indira Gandhi. Today, he had come before the late Prime Minister’s granddaughter.

The old man, who said he knew Indira Gandhi and had seen Priyanka, 40, “when she was just a schoolchild coming here with her father”, told her his grandson had been helping him nurture the constituency.

On her first visit to the constituency since 2009, Priyanka took a while to decide.

Sources said Priyanka spoke to party veterans from Jagdishpur constituency and sounded them out. She also asked Ram Sevak separately if he was under any pressure.

It was only after she was assured of the support of the other veterans and Ram Sevak denied he was under any pressure that she agreed.

“Priyanka assured us that I will be contesting the poll this time in Jagdishpur, replacing my grandfather,” Radhe Shyam, 41, told The Telegraph in the presence of his grandfather as they stepped out after meeting Priyanka at Munshiganj guesthouse in Amethi.

Old-timers said Ram Sevak, who used to be locally known as “Ram Dhobi” — because of his caste as well as profession, washerman — had been introduced to Indira at a meeting in 1971 by Sanjay Gandhi’s aides.

Fielded from Jagdishpur because of the strong presence of backward class voters, he won.

But Ram Sevak remained a washerman.

He later set up a laundry in Jagdishpur in the eighties. “One of the reasons why Ram Dhobi was liked by all was his ability to bridge caste barriers. He would speak softly with the upper castes and backward classes. He would wash clothes of both the rich upper castes and rich backward caste families. His popularity among people made him a leader in those days,” said Ranjit Singh, an 86-year-old Congress worker in Jagdishpur.

Singh recalled that when Ram Sevak campaigned, he would go door to door, saying: “I am here to ask for your clothes, not votes.”

Today, the old man, who is short of hearing and can barely walk a few hundred metres at a stretch, didn’t ask for votes.

He wanted to pass on the baton to someone who could take care of Jagdishpur, once a rural constituency that Rajiv Gandhi turned into an industrial hub.

“My grandfather was active till 2007 but soon after health problems started, including breathlessness and pressure fluctuations,” said Radhe Shyam, a father of two who began his career as a mechanic in Malvika Steel, a factory started by Rajiv Gandhi in the late eighties but has since closed down.

Radhe Shyam’s father, Ram Sevak’s son Shiv Prasad, 60, chose to stay off politics.

Ram Sevak reaffirmed his loyalty to the party. “I was always a worker, never a leader. I used to see Rajiv Gandhi visit the constituency with Priyanka and Rahul, both kids then,” he said.

Priyanka, who arrived this morning, took charge of family pocket boroughs Amethi and Rae Bareli, addressing grievances and setting the target of winning all the 10 Assembly constituencies in the two parliamentary segments.

In the last elections, the party had won six of the 10 seats, up four from the 2002 polls.

“She told us the Congress this time would either form the government in Uttar Pradesh or no government would be formed without our help,” said Paramanand Mishra, a village chief of Samrota in Tiloi, a constituency in Amethi.

At a meeting in the guesthouse with party workers, Priyanka appealed to them to check factionalism. “If you have any differences, say it now. I am here but you have to work for the success of the party and Mission 2012,” party worker Chauhan Waha Akhtar quoted her as saying.