Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli, a seat represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi for four terms until she was elected to Rajya Sabha this year. The party’s decision came on the last day for nomination filing by candidates for the prestigious seat.
In its eleventh-hour decision, the Congress fielded Kishori Lal Sharma against Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi, where the Gandhi scion suffered defeat in 2019 elections.
The move comes after days of intense speculation and heated debate over whether the Congres would field members of the Gandhi family from these two seats. Friday is the last date of filing of nominations for both seats that will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.
Rahul Gandhi, who is also seeking re-election from Kerala’s Wayanad, will face BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli. Singh had lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In 2019, Rahul, the incumbent MP from Amethi back then, lost the seat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Smriti Irani. He, however, got elected to Parliament from Kerala’s Wayanad, a seat that he is contesting this time as well. Amethi was once considered a Congress bastion.
Meanwhile, Rahul’s mother, Sonia Gandhi, who was the MP from Raebareli till recently, decided not to contest the election this time, sparking speculation that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might contest from the seat, which is a Congress stronghold.
Putting speculations to rest at the very last moment, the Congress said on Friday that Rahul will face the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli. Singh had lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress pick Sharma will be up against Union minister Irani in Amethi.
Irani has of late taken swipes at the Congress, asserting that she did in five years what Rahul couldn’t do in 15. BJP leaders have suggested that the Congress was indecisive in picking its candidates for these seats. because they were afraid of defeat.
Amethi
The Amethi parliamentary constituency, created in 1967, was a Congress bastion before 2019. Till then, it was ruled by non-Congress parties only twice, and that too only for four years. First, it was post-Emergency in 1977, when a Janata Party candidate won and remained its representative in the Lok Sabha till 1980. Then, party-hopper and Amethi prince Sanjay Sinh won on a BJP ticket in 1998. Sinh had earlier seen a massive defeat against Rajiv Gandhi in 1989. He faced a huge electoral loss again in 1999. This time his opponent was Sonia Gandhi, who won by over 3,00,000 votes in Amethi, with a victory margin of 48%.
When Rahul decided to join active politics in 2004, Amethi was chosen as his constituency and Sonia Gandhi shifted to Raebareli. Rahul won his first Lok Sabha election from Amethi and went on to win again in 2009. Irani fought against Rahul in 2014, a contest he won, but with a reduced margin. Irani, however, continued to work actively in the constituency, emerging as a giant killer in 2019.
Raebareli
Earlier this month, Sonia Gandhi took oath as a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Rajasthan, filling the seat left vacant after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure ended on April 3.
When Sonia Gandhi decided to leave Raebareli, she wrote an open letter to voters, saying: “Due to health and increasing age, I will not contest the next Lok Sabha elections. After this decision, I will not get the opportunity to serve you directly, but certainly, my heart and soul will always be with you.” She had held the seat since 2004.
In 1952, Feroze Gandhi first contested from Raebareli. Indira Gandhi ensured that the legacy of the family was imprinted on this prestigious seat. When Sonia Gandhi decided to seek a recontest in 2006, after resigning over the possibility of the government bringing in an ordinance on the office of profit issue, she won with a larger margin than in 2004.
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