As many as 2,000 senior Congress leaders from various States landed in Raebareli. They were accompanied by party workers. With unprecedented demand for hotel rooms, tariffs have more than doubled in the last couple of weeks

Raebareli: All hotels in Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh are jam-packed and room tariffs have skyrocketed these days as the leaders belonging to the Indian National Congress (INC) have descended on the city to campaign for their leader Rahul Gandhi who is in the Lok Sabha fray from here for the first time.

“More than 100 people are coming and inquiring about rooms every day. People from as far as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and several other States came here. But we had to turn them back as we don’t have rooms. We have never seen this kind of rush for hotels in Raebareli,” Pankaj Awasthi, Manager, Preet Hotel, told Bizz Buzz.

With an unprecedented demand for hotel rooms, tariffs have more than doubled in the last couple of weeks. “People are ready to pay higher tariffs. But rooms are not available across the city,” he said.

Raebareli is the second parliamentary constituency for where former Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting in this election. He is also in fray from Kerala’s Wayanad, which went to polls in the second phase of the ongoing seven-phase 2024 General Elections on April 26. Election in Raebareli is scheduled for May 20, the fifth phase.

Rahul also contested from two seats last time in 2019 - Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad. He lost from his traditional Amethi seat, but won from Wayanad.

Like Amethi, Raebareli is also the pocket borough of the Gandhi family. This parliamentary constituency’s association with the Gandhi family began way back in 1957. In that year, Feroze Gandhi, husband of three-time Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and grandfather of Rahul, won as MP here. Subsequently, Indira Gandhi also won from here in 1967, 1971 and 1980 with massive majorities, when she was Prime Minister. Former Congress president and Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, who played a key role in the formation of two Congress-led UPA governments at the Centre in 2004 and 2009, represented this constituency for four consecutive terms from 2004. She recently opted for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan due to health reasons.

A Congress leader from Chhattisgarh lamented that when he reached Raebareli two days back, he could not find a hotel room. “We went around the city for a couple of hours in the middle of night and finally found a room without an air conditioner,” he said.

“We have 30 rooms in our hotel, priced up to Rs2,500. All of them are booked. No rooms are available at our hotel till the elections are over,” Vinod, an employee of Hotel Jaideep, said. According to him, Congress leaders from Haryana and Chhattisgarh are staying in his hotel.

As per rough estimates, as many as 2,000 senior Congress leaders from across the country landed in Raebareli to spearhead the campaign for Rahul Gandhi. Many of them came with several party workers from their respective States and localities.

“We came here three days back to express our solidarity with our leader Rahul Gandhi and campaign for him. The country needs his leadership more than anything else at this crucial juncture,” said C Robert Bruce, a senior Congress leader from Tamil Nadu who is in the fray from Tirunelveli Lok Sabha seat in that State. He expressed confidence that he would win from that seat with a good majority. Tirunelveli went to polls along with all other MP seats in Tamil Nadu in the first phase on April 19.

“We have been given the task of carrying out door-to-door in Raebareli city. The campaign is going on very well. I came here on my own to support Rahul Gandhi,” said Dr Kethuri Venkatesh, National OBC Co-ordinator, Congress. Venkatesh, who hails from Hyderabad, was with Rahul Gandhi during the entire Bharat Jodo Yatra.