Ending weeks of speculation, the Congress on May 3 announced Rahul Gandhi as its candidate from Rae Bareli, a constituency his mother Sonia Gandhi opted out of this Lok Sabha election, and Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi, the segment from where the former party chief lost in 2019.
The announcement, which came hours before the deadline for filing nominations was to run out, also means that this will be the first Lok Sabha election in 25 years when no one from the Gandhi family will be in the fray from Amethi.
"Our family has had a long association with Kishori Lal Sharma. He has always been dedicated to serving the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli. His passion for public service is an example in itself. Today it is a matter of joy that the Congress Party has made Kishori Lal a candidate from Amethi," Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on May 3.
Before the decision came, there was the talk of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been accompanying her brother Rahul on the campaign trail, contesting her first Lok Sabha election from one of the two family strongholds.
Dynasty ammo
She declined requests to contest and reportedly told Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge that she would concentrate on campaigning, reports claimed. She also didn’t want to give the dynasty ammunition to the BJP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have been targeting the Congress for fostering dynastic politics.
A win for Rahul and she would have put three members of the Gandhi family in Parliament. Sonia Gandhi, who decided not to fight the Lok Sabha election this time, is in the Rajya Sabha.
Three Gandhis in Parliament would have reinforced the "BJP's charge of dynastic politics", reports claimed her as telling the party.
A close aide of the Gandhis told the Deccan Herald that with only one of the Gandhis left in the fray, the obvious choice was Rae Bareli as the party couldn’t have let go of the only seat it won in Uttar Pradesh in 2019.
Since Independence, the Congress has lost Amethi and Rae Bareli three times each, the biggest upset was perhaps when Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019.
The family’s association with Amethi began in 1980 when Sanjay Gandhi entered Parliament from the seat, which was carved out in 1967.
Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi made her electoral debut from Amethi in 1999 before shifting to Rae Bareli in 2004, making way for Rahul to fight his first election.
KL Sharma, who has been the go-to person for Gandhis in Amethi and Rae Bareli, will have a formidable rival in Irani, who has been campaigning aggressively for weeks now.
Voting for Amethi and Rae Bareli will held in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20.
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