Loyalty to India’s Gandhis Wavers; India’s Ruling Party and its Leading Clan Struggle with Economic Discontent Before Vote

Loyalty to India’s Gandhis Wavers

India’s Ruling Party and its Leading Clan Struggle with Economic Discontent Before Vote

NIHARIKA MANDHANA

March 28, 2014 8:11 p.m. ET

JAGDISHPUR, India—For decades, the farming communities that stretch out around this northern Indian town have elected Gandhis—generations of them.

But even here in this bastion of support for India’s most powerful political clan and the ruling Congress party that it leads, there is grumbling and dissatisfaction as India heads into a pivotal national election next month.

Roads in the villages around Jagdishpur are potholed, electricity is spotty and the schools often lack teachers, locals say. Factories that once made textiles and cement have halted production, and good jobs are scarce.

Rajesh Kumar has been unable to find work despite having a college degree and computer training. He and his family get by on the $2.50 he earns a day digging ditches as part of a government public-works program championed by Sonia Gandhi, president of the left-leaning Congress party.

“Development has been very slow to come,” says the 34-year-old father of four. He said he hasn’t decided who will get his vote.

After a decade in office, Congress is facing an uphill battle against the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, whose Hindu nationalist standard-bearer, Narendra Modi, is widely seen as the front-runner to become the next prime minister.

Voters, especially younger ones, are increasingly impatient for economic development. And Congress, which has presided over slowing growth in recent years, has struggled to meet their demands.

On Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi, the fifth-generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family who is leading Congress’s election campaign this year, pledged to increase health care and other benefits for India’s poor.

The 43-year-old Mr. Gandhi also promised to invest $1 trillion in roads and other infrastructure projects, saying that for India to succeed, “we need to unleash business.”

For a long time, welfare programs have helped Congress stay in power. Ram Dayal, 50, works in a government-sponsored rural-jobs program, gets subsidized food and received nearly $800 from the state to build a house.

He talks about an eye-care hospital Mr. Gandhi founded that does cataract operations for very cheap rates and other health-care initiatives his charities run. “We will always vote for the Gandhi family,” Mr. Dayal said. “We know them, we know they work for the poor.”

But others, including rural Indians who have benefited from Congress’s welfare policies, have grown frustrated with endemic corruption in government services—and are drawn by Mr. Modi’s promise of a government that will make quick decisions, boost manufacturing and createjobs.

Since 2004, Mr. Gandhi has represented this area in Parliament. His father, Rajeev, who was assassinated in 1991, won here, as did his uncle and mother, Mrs. Gandhi, who is now a member of Parliament from a neighboring constituency.

All that history has built up such a large reservoir of loyalty at the ballot box for the family that Mr. Gandhi and Mrs. Gandhi, who are both up for re-election, are almost certain to win.

But Mr. Gandhi is inheriting a significantly diminished organization. Congress, which has run India for most of its postcolonial history, once enjoyed a formidable majority in Parliament and controlled most state governments. Now, it relies on allies to stay in power nationally and has been edged out in most of the major states by regional parties.

In 2012 state elections here in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, Congress, under Mr. Gandhi’s leadership, managed to hold on to just two of the 10 state assembly seats in his and his mother’s constituencies.

To the village elders, Mr. Gandhi’s constituency, known as Amethi after another town in the district, has come a long way. “Whatever we have, we have because of the Gandhi family,” says Haji Sabir Ali, 77, who runs a street-side tea stall. Younger residents, however, complain that development has stalled.

Three decades ago, Rajeev Gandhi, who served as prime minister from 1984 to 1989, tried to build up industry in the area by offering cheap land and attractive loans to lure businesses. Hundreds of factories opened to manufacture a range of products from steel and paper to textiles and cement.

Today, most of them are idle behind rusted gates manned by guards who say they can’t recall when the plants last operated. A state-owned machinery maker and a private fertilizer company are among the few that survived. Residents say they mostly hire temporary workers and pay less than $5 a day.

Five years ago, during Mr. Gandhi’s last parliamentary campaign, he promised to revive an ailing steel plant set up during his father’s times. The factory was acquired in 2009 by the state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd. 500113.BY +1.09% but has yet to start production.

This time around, Mr. Gandhi has pledged to transform the area into a “mega food park” so local farmers can be involved in the processing of their produce. Forty factories will be set up, he said at an event in October. “We want to bring change to Jagdishpur and to Amethi,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Some are skeptical. “There are promises and inaugurations, but the job just doesn’t get done,” said R.C. Mishra, the president of the State Industrial Development Association.

The Gandhis and Congress say that hostile local governments have blocked projects for political reasons. Sampath Kumar, who helps run Gandhi-backed self-help programs for local women, said Mr. Gandhi is working “to bring systematic changes in Amethi. He wants to transition from the model of patronage to the model of empowerment.”

The Aam Aadmi, or Common Man, Party, which has railed against dynastic politics since it was formed a year and a half ago, is hoping to benefit from local frustration. Its candidate in Amethi, Kumar Vishwas, has adopted the slogan: ” Rahul Gandhi, have some shame.”

“I am the son of a working-class Indian and he is the son of a prime minister,” Mr. Kumar said. “It doesn’t matter if I win or lose, but Rahul Gandhi needs to be challenged.”