Rahul Gandhi Shifts To Rae Bareli For Second Lok Sabha Bid; Congress Fields KL Sharma From Amethi

New Delhi: Congress today ended the long-kept suspense over Rahul Gandhi's candidature. Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli seat. The announcement comes as nomination process for Amethi, Rae Bareli ends today. The Congress also fielded KL Sharma from Amethi against Smriti Irani. 

Amethi and Rae Bareli are considered as traditional pocket boroughs of the Gandhi-Nehru family as its members have represented the seats for several decades. 

Congress releases another list of candidates for the upcoming #LokSabhaElections2024

Rahul Gandhi to contest from Raebareli and Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi. pic.twitter.com/2w4QQcn9ok — ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2024

Earlier, sources did say that Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Amethi, but a final announcement was awaited from the first family of the Congress. Amid the mounting suspense, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that 'nobody is scared.' He further said that the party's central election committee (CEC) had empowered Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalise the candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Before the announcement, Ramesh said yesterday, "My expectation is that in the next 24-30 hours, the Congress president will finalise and a decision taken by him will be announced," Ramesh said in response to a question at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here. "Till that is done all the information, all so-called office orders are fake." 

When asked why there was a delay in taking a decision and if the Congress was "scared" in fielding Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Ramesh said yesterday, "There is no delay. Has the BJP announced its candidates in Rae Bareli? Smriti Irani is a sitting MP. Nobody is scared, discussions are ongoing, and the Congress president has been authorised." "There is no delay, there is time till May 3," he said. 

The state leadership in Uttar Pradesh had already urged the central election committee and the party leadership to field Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and Priyanka from Rae Bareli. As speculation mounted, the Congress workers in Amethi on Tuesday also held a sit-in and demanded that the party name a member of the Gandhi family as its candidate from the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency.

Amethi Lok Sabha Seat 

The Amethi seat has been represented by Rahul Gandhi since 2004 and he remained a member of Parliament from the constituency for three consecutive terms till 2019 when he was defeated by BJP's Smriti Irani. Rahul Gandhi currently represents the Wayanad constituency in Kerala from where he had also contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi had earlier said that he will follow 'whatever order' he gets from his party. 

Rae Bareli Lok Sabha Seat

The Rae Bareli constituency was represented by Sonia Gandhi from 2004 to 2024. Prior to that, Sonia Gandhi had represented the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency after she entered politics and contested for the first time in 1999. The seat has previously been represented by Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress has forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

When Is The Voting In Amethi And Rae Bareli? 

The Amethi and Rae Bareli seats are all set to go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.  The Lok Sabha Elections are being held in seven phases starting April 19. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.