Amethi, Feb. 17 :    Amethi, Feb. 17:  When Sonia Gandhi arrives here later this week, she may find she has come too late to her family fief. Amita Singh, the rani of Amethi contesting on a BJP ticket, is already claiming victory. 'The question is of margins,' she says, as villagers, old, young and cynical, rush to touch the feet of their 'raniji'. In a strange twist of fate, Amita is pitted against a person who is believed to have nearly killed her husband, former BJP MP Sanjay Singh, in a bloody shootout in 1989. Congress candidate Ashis Shukla is the main accused in that attempted murder. Amita had lost her first husband and national badminton champion Syed Modi, too, to bullets on a busy Lucknow street in July 1998, the needle of suspicion pointing towards the man she married later, Sanjay. Now, she is seeking vengeance, not bloody revenge, but badla for Sanjay's devastating defeat in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections when he lost to Sonia by three lakh votes. She is vowing to wipe Congress off the 'face of Amethi', with help from the Congress. Of the eight Assembly constituencies in Sultanpur, of which Amethi is one, the Congress now has only Amethi to call its own. The Congress seems to have added to its miseries by changing sitting MLA Ram Harsh Singh and replacing him with Shukla in the hope of garnering a bigger chunk of the Brahmin votes. Most are cynical about the gamble paying off. As Imtiaz Alam, a shopkeeper in Amethi, says: 'The Congress just needs a push (over the edge). The story is all over.' In Narhaini, a small village some kilometres away from Amethi, everyone gathers to hear Amita. In the din and bustle, there is one common refrain. 'We are not angry with the Congress,' says Ramakant Mishra, as others nod, almost sorrowfully in agreement. 'All we want is development which they can't ensure us anymore,' 67-year-old Mishra adds. 'Nowadays Congress leaders don't even come here anymore. Things were different in the time of Indira Gandhi, maybe Rajiv Gandhi, too.' Babulal, a Harijan elder, says the 'emotional bond with the Congress is still there, though times have changed for us for the worse. We want to remedy that. It is nothing personal.' Amita, meanwhile, is promising more than a quick-fix cure for all the ailments she says 'Congressi netas have left as a legacy in Amethi'. She has played her cards well. After getting elected as chairperson of the Sultanpur Zilla Panchayat, she initiated a number of development measures. She knew these 'good deeds' - of recent vintage - would serve as reminders at the time of elections. She also married off 52 poor couples some months ago and has promised to organise another mass wedding of 101 Dalit men and women next month. Looking demure in her simple sari she says: 'Please don't get swayed away by emotions for the Congress, don't look back, just look ahead into the future. Forget Sonia Gandhi. She has deserted you. Can you tell me how many times she has come here after winning the Lok Sabha election?' 'No,' villagers squatting in the mild sun answer in unison, but the hint of sadness and regret is clear on their hopeful faces.