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Sonia, Priyanka on a PR exercise in Amethi

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her charismatic daughter Priyanka, who had swayed the masses in Rajiv Gandhi's political constituency Amethi in the last Lok Sabha polls, were back in action this week.

Driving from village to village and re-establishing their chord with the people, the mother and daughter have one simple message to give -- that Amethi is not receiving the attention it deserves simply because of a "hostile" BJP government sitting in Lucknow.

This was their first visit to Amethi after Sonia romped home with a record margin of votes, defeating the scion of the former princely state of Amethi, Sanjay Singh , who is also a one-time protege of Rajiv Gandhi. Sonia , who had won from both Bellary in Karnataka and Amethi, chose to retain the latter in the Lok Sabha because of "old bonds".

With a Congress government in Karnataka, she could ensure a handsome development package for Bellary as a sop to the otherwise disillusioned electorate. However, Amethi continues to remain utterly neglected.

That was the reason why the mother and daughter decided to devote three days to Amethi . While she claims to have undertaken the trip to perform 'shramdaan', the underlying idea clearly was to maintain good PR with the people.

Apart from looking up poor patients in the local Sanjay Gandhi hospital, where the Gandhi family camps, Sonia and Priyanka went about distributing blankets to them. She then drove down to the grave of famous Sufi saint and poet the late Malik Mohammad Jaisi in Jais town. The mother and daughter offered a chaddar at the tomb. This was followed by a visit to a local ashram run by a popular sadhu in Tikarmafi village.

As if the ritual was still incomplete, Sonia Gandhi formally inaugurated a cricket match organised by a local unit of the National Students Union of India.

On learning about the death of six members of a family in an accident, she promptly took time off her schedule to visit the family and offer condolences.

But all along, she made it a point to inquire about the development tasks undertaken at her behest from the MP's constituency fund. Lamenting the poor progress on that front, she assured the people that she would take up the issue at the highest level and see to it that work was done on a priority basis.

Earlier, en route to Amethi, during a brief stopover in Lucknow, the duo visited Nadwatul Ulema, the internationally acclaimed Islamic Centre of Learning. The idea was to offer condolences over the demise of the institution's Rector and president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Maulana Ali Mian.

She met Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadvi, the new chief of Nadwa. During the course of her talks, she also made it a point to reiterate the Congress's stand against the recently passed Religious Places Bill in Uttar Pradesh, which empowers the government to regulate construction and even use of religious places.

She did not mince words in accusing the BJP government of "bringing this enactment only to harass the minority community". Sonia, who had been taking pains to re-establish her party's ties with Muslims, obviously did not wish to miss this opportunity.

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