Rahul Gandhi (in white), Congress vice-president and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to file his nomination in Amethi (UP) on April 12. Photo: Reuters

Amethi, the constituency that has elected members of the Gandhi family since 1980 - first Sanjay Gandhi, then brother Rajiv, followed by Rajiv's widow, Sonia, and now son Rahul, the Congress party's vice-president who is seeking re-election - is crumbling, quite literally. There is a decaying stench that overpowers Amethi, with roads leading up to the district dotted with closed factories that were set up during the time of Rajiv Gandhi.

Companies such as Malvika Steel and SAIL invested in the district once upon a time, but what remains today are crumbling structures, scraps of which in the form of iron are sold by the unemployed of Amethi for drugs. Unemployment, lack of basic facilities-there is no government hospital in Amethi- electricity for only a few hours a day, potholed roads, and abysmally poor schools tell a familiar story of 'Bharat' or other parts of rural India. In fact, Amethi would rank lower in development indicators that its counterparts in other states.

Uttar Pradesh lags painfully behind the other large 15 states in the country on a majority of development parameters. But Amethi has been electing the most powerful leaders of India, so what can possibly stop them from developing their constituency?

Rahul Gandhi, in an interview to Headlines Today, said that lack of cooperation from the state government has kept the constituency under-developed. But isn't Samajwadi Party an alliance of the ruling Congress? Yes, it is. The economics of it apart, the travesty is the politics of adulation and hope that the Gandhis have scripted with near precision in this constituency.

What jumps out in this super-star constituency is this overwhelming sense of low self worth among the residents of Amethi and psychological impact of poor development on individuals' aspirations. There are generations of families in Amethi who will vouch their support for the Gandhis. When questioned on their lack of access to basic facilities, they retort with a story or two on a hand pump gifted by the Gandhis back in the day or on a family being able to send their child abroad with the support of the Gandhis. "What will I do with roads? I spend most of my day in the farm," says a frail farmer Ram Prasad. All of 55, Prasad owns less than an acre of land and has voted for Congress nearly all his life. He has two sons, graduates but unemployed. Who will he vote for this time? "Whoever waives my farm loan," says Prasad, who has a farm loan of about Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000.

As the BJP's Smriti Irani and the Aam Aadmi Party's Kumar Vishwas rake up the development agenda in a constituency that has mostly voted for "Rajiv's son and Rajiv's wife", they are also aware that it is the youth they can influence. Anybody over 45 is an ardent Gandhi supporter.

Education and access fuel the mind, and that has been-perhaps strategically-kept off-bounds in Amethi. The Gandhi aura continues to enamor because the residents of Amethi don't want answers. They have never asked questions and because they don't know any better, they have never felt the need to. Yes, the Gandhis have managed to get several big-ticket educational projects sanctioned from the central government including institutes for information technology, hotel management and footwear design. Again, these projects have not yielded the desired results. There is a gaping disconnect between the need of Amethi and proposed investment projects - most of these projects, if implemented, will generate employment for others and not for the residents of Amethi. The projects don't capitalize on the strengths of Amethi and its manpower, the announced projects almost appear as showpiece announcements of the Gandhis to silence the critics.

Arjun Yadav is another Congress supporter. He moved to Lucknow from Amethi for lack of opportunities and access to good education for his children, yet he remains adamant in his support for Gandhi. "You tell me, won't you vote for someone who can help send your children abroad? Tomorrow all of Amethi will be out to welcome its prince with roses (refers to Rahul Gandhi coming to file his nomination). You will not get to see an inch of this broken road - when Rajivji left us, he gave us his son's responsibility."

Another woman from Veerganj village was wary of sharing her name with Business Today as she said "We see him once every five years."

So, what gets the Gandhis the votes? India is feudal at heart and brain, and Amethi residents have been encouraged to remain that way. The 'mai-baap', 'raja-praja' politics thrive in the area. Lack of education has kept them away from thinking independently and demand answers, the power brokers of the district are old-time Gandhi loyalists and in rural areas it is the mukhiya, or the village head, who usually dictates who gets the votes.

The discourse is changing in Amethi. Irani and Vishwas are talking jobs and development, but the big question is whether the people of Amethi are ready for a new kind of politics?

Away from the politics of worship and adulation, will they choose a leader who pitches himself as one of them or a leader who speaks about developing the district like Gujarat? But, wait, development means different things to different people. For a voter in America, development could mean a city that's connected through WiFi, for a Bangalore voter development could mean a better garbage disposal system, for a Delhi voter development means better safety for women, but for the voter in Amethi development still is a farm loan waiver.

