The buzz over Congress's candidates for its Uttar Pradesh bastions Amethi and Raebareli has reached a crescendo with the grand old party set to finalise the names on Saturday evening.
The Congress’ central election committee (CEC) chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge will discuss the remaining seats for Lok Sabha polls, party sources said.
In the run up to the second phase of polling, Congress sources said that the party is likely to nominate Rahul Gandhi from Amethi yet again, paving way for a rematch with BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani. In Raebareli, the grand old party could field Priyanka Gandhi, who is seen as a fitting replacement for her mother Sonia Gandhi who represented the seat until February this year.
The Congress has so far announced candidates for 317 Lok Sabha seats but its choices for Amethi and Raebareli will be closely watched since the two seats have been party bastions for decades.
Sonia represented Raebareli since 2004 until she decided to opt out of electoral politics in February this year and entered the Rajya Sabha instead.
In fact, Raebareli has been a Congress bastion since 1960 with both Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi having represented it.
The Congress's pick for Amethi will be even more interesting since Rahul Gandhi, who had been representing the seat since 2004, lost the elections to Smriti Irani in 2019.
Irani, who defeated Rahul by a margin of 55,120 votes, has been openly challenging the Congress leader to contest against her in 2024. From accusing Rahul of "running away" from Amethi to saying that he hardly did any development in the region in the last 15 years, Irani has gone all out to deride and discredit the Congress leader.
While Rahul has not directly targeted Irani, he has continuted to describe Amethi as his "home" even after losing the constituency, indicating that he has not lost connection with the seat that was once a Congress stronghold.
Voting will take place in both Amethi and Raebareli in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20.
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