At Pakri Chauraha in Jaunpur, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay looked across the crowd and spotted his rival Rajdev Singh sitting among ordinary people, rickshaw-pullers and tonga drivers, smoking a bidi and chatting with them. What slipped out of his mouth in that instant became one of the most retold moments in Jana Sangh folklore: "A mistake has been made, this election is going to be very difficult for me." Recalling the history of the Jana Sangh and the political backdrop of Jaunpur, Jayaprakash Singh shared this striking account of how a grassroots leader once managed to outmanoeuvre the party's own national president in what was considered its safest stronghold.
Jaunpur Was Considered a Jana Sangh Bastion Since Independence
According to Jayaprakash Singh, ever since independence the political ground in Jaunpur district had remained favourable to the Jana Sangh, and the constituency was seen as one of the party's strongest fortresses. When mid-term Lok Sabha elections were announced there, the seat was already a sitting Jana Sangh seat. That is precisely why the party decided to field its biggest face, its then national president Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, from Jaunpur. At the time, Pandit ji was not even a sitting member of Parliament, and within the party Jaunpur was being treated as the safest constituency in the country for him to contest from.
Congress Could Not Find a Candidate to Field
The announcement that a towering figure like Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay would contest from Jaunpur sent the Congress camp into a scramble. Jayaprakash Singh explains that Congress simply could not find a candidate willing to stand against Pandit ji. No local Congress leader had the courage to file nomination papers against Deendayal Upadhyay. The party's central leadership kept deliberating over who could possibly be sent to face such an unmatched, principled and famously simple-living leader.
Rajdev Singh Was Called In From the Socialist Camp and Handed a Ticket
Jayaprakash Singh revealed that Rajdev Singh was not even a member of the Congress party at that time. He belonged to the Congress Socialist Party and ran his own separate organisation. When every major Congress leader refused to contest, a strategy was worked out: if Rajdev Singh could somehow be persuaded, a real contest against Pandit ji would become possible. Congress then called in Rajdev Singh under these special circumstances, handed him a ticket, and put him up as the candidate against Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.
The Scene at Pakri Chauraha That Changed the Calculation
Once he arrived in Jaunpur, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay grew curious to see for himself who he was up against, and he expressed this wish to his workers. Jayaprakash Singh recounts that when the group set out with Pandit ji, they came upon a striking sight at Pakri Chauraha in the Olandganj area. Rajdev Singh was sitting on the ground in the most ordinary manner, right among rickshaw-pullers, tonga drivers and the general public, talking to them freely with a lit bidi in hand. Watching this grassroots connection and Rajdev Singh's natural popularity among the crowd, Pandit ji instantly sensed which way the political wind was blowing. Without a moment's delay, he turned to those close to him and said, "A mistake has been made, this election has become very difficult for me."
Beyond Winning and Losing, an Election That Turned Historic
Jayaprakash Singh says that Pandit ji's prediction went on to come true, and Congress's Rajdev Singh won that election. Rajdev Singh certainly won the seat, but the fact that a towering pillar of the Jana Sangh like Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay contested from Jaunpur's soil, and was a candidate there at all, turned into something historic in its own right, quite apart from who ultimately won or lost. The episode still lives on in Jaunpur's political memory as a reminder of how a leader's easy, everyday presence among rickshaw-pullers, tonga drivers and common citizens could tilt the outcome of even the biggest contests.
