Family ties take a back seat as niece challenges uncle!

Congress leader Vikram Madam’s niece is leading him a merry dance by contesting the April 30 Lok Sabha elections against him from Jamnagar in the Saurshtra region of Gujarat.

Poonam Madam (34), a sitting BJP legislator from Khambhaliya, has thrown down the gauntlet before her 56-year-old relative who is a two-time MP and a darling of the masses, having won the seat in 2009 with 281,410 votes.

Poonam, general secretary of the youth Congress till late 2012, was denied the Congress ticket in the December 2012 assembly polls but she stunned her uncle by quickly crossing over to the BJP.

The saffron party willingly fielded her from Khambhaliya and she avenged her insult by emerging triumphant.

Poonam, daughter of a former mayor and six-time MLA, has been campaigning hard, singing paeans of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi but never spitting venom against her uncle.

All that she says about her rival candidate is: “I will bag more votes than my uncle.”

But, though factors like clean image, the Modi wave, and the recent exodus of some Congress leaders to join the BJP may favour her, internal bickerings in the saffron party, presence of 170,000 Muslim and 120,000 Dalit voters as well as the affable Congress candidate’s massive popularity may dash her hopes of a convincing victory.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com

• India