Rahul, Priyanka by her side, Sonia Gandhi files nomination papers from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat

RAE BARELI: Former Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday filed her nomination papers from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Sonia went to file her nomination papers with her son and Congress president Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Before filing her nomination papers, Sonia Gandhi, who is a sitting MP from Rae Bareli, performed a 'havan' at the party's office in Rae Bareli. After performing the 'havan', the veteran Congress leader embarked on a 700 metre long road show in Rae Bareli.

Talking to media after filing her nomination, Sonia attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he must not think that he is invincible. She reminded the media of 2004 when everyone thought that then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was invincible but the Congress defeated him.

Rahul Gandhi also talked to media and said, "There have been many people in Indian history who had arrogance to believe that they're invincible & bigger than the people of India. Narendra Modi for the last 5 yrs has done nothing for the ppl of India.His invincibility will be in full view after election results."

Rae Bareli is a bastion of the Gandhis as Sonia Gandhi has won from here for four times. This time Sonia Gandhi is up against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh. It is to be noted that Dinesh Singh had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress few weeks ago. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have not fielded their candidates from Rae Bareli.

Sonia Gandhi had won the seat in 2004, 2006 (bypolls), 2009 and 2014. In 2014, Sonia Gandhi had won 5,26,434 votes to register a comnfortably victory from here.

The constituency has five assembly segments -  Bachhrawan, Harchandpur, Rae Bareli, Sareni and Unchahar. Rae Bareli has been represented by Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Arun Nehru, Sheila Kaul and Satish Sharma in the past.

The voting in Rae Bareli will take place in the fifth phase on May 6. The counting of the votes will take place on May 23.