Members of the central election committee (CEC) members of the Congress strongly urged the Congress leadership to field former president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli. The final decision was left to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Gandhi siblings.
Sources said that there will be no further meetings on the issue. Former party president and chairperson of the Congress parliamentary party Sonia Gandhi was present at the meeting, but did not express any opinion on the subject.
The two seats go to polls in the fifth phase and voting has been scheduled for May 20. The last day to file nominations is May 3.
Mr. Gandhi has already contested from Wayanad in Kerala, which went to polls on April 26.
The demand to have the Gandhi siblings fielded from Amethi and Rae Bareli has been growing within the party, with members saying that not contesting from there could send out a wrong message that the Hindi heartland has been conceded to the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh, with its 80 Lok Sabha seats, plays a decisive role in picking the government at the Centre. The Hindu had reported on April 25, the Congress’ U.P. in-charge Avinash Pande’s remarks, where he said that there was a unanimous demand from the cadre. “There is a unanimous demand with folded hands by the Congress workers and people from Rae Bareli, Amethi and other parts of Uttar Pradesh that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi must contest.”
Mr. Gandhi has represented Amethi thrice in a row, after contesting from there for the first time in 2004. In 2019, he had contested two Lok Sabha constituencies — Wayanad and Amethi. In Amethi, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Smriti Irani defeated Mr. Gandhi by a margin of 55,120 votes.
If Ms. Vadra agrees to the party members’ appeal to contest from Rae Bareli, it will be her first electoral contest. The seat was vacated by her mother Sonia Gandhi, after she opted out of the Lok Sabha election, choosing to enter Parliament via the Rajya Sabha.
Ms. Gandhi contested her first Lok Sabha election in 1999 from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Bellary in Karnataka. She gave up Bellary, to retain Amethi, which her husband Rajiv Gandhi represented in four consecutive elections. In the 2004 election, she shifted to Gandhi family’s pocket borough — Rae Bareli, vacating Amethi in favour of her son Rahul Gandhi.
Congress has won Rae Bareli 17 times since the first general election. The seat was first represented by Feroze Gandhi and later on three occasions by Indira Gandhi. In 1977, Janata Party leader Raj Narain had famously defeated Indira Gandhi here and the BJP won the seat in the 1996 and 1998 elections.
Published - April 27, 2024 10:33 pm IST