As you enter Lakhimpur by road, Priyanka Gandhi seems larger on the Congress hoardings. There she is, smiling widely, alongside a local leader, while Rahul Gandhi has now joined their mother Sonia and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the ceremonial line-up of smaller picture boxes at the top. You can’t miss, either, the wall writings and posters felicitating Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra “Teni” and his son, Ashish Mishra or “Monu Bhaiyya”, who belong to Nighasan which falls in this district.
Ashish Mishra — currently in jail for the incident at Lakhimpur on October 3, in which four farmers were mowed down by a car owned by the minister, and four more were killed in the retaliatory violence — is on the BJP poster not because he is a party leader or office-bearer. He isn’t. But as they tell you here matter-of-factly, he is “mantri putra (minister’s son)”. Ahead of the 2022 polls, he was/is also “prabal daawedar (strong contender)” for the BJP ticket. “Nighasan janata ki pukaar, Monu bhaiyya ab ki baar”.
