India election: Rahul to contest from Rae Bareli, a Gandhi family bastion

Ending days of suspense, India's opposition party Congress today announced that Rahul Gandhi will contest from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

Rae Bareli, a Gandhi family bastion, will be the second seat where Rahul Gandhi will be in the fray. He is the party's candidate in Wayanad constituency in Kerala where voting took place on April 26 in the second phase of the seven-phased polling which ends on June 1, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The formal announcement by Congress of Rahul's candidature from Rae Bareli came hours before the deadline for filing nominations in the constituency ends. Rae Bareli will vote in the fifth phase on May 20 and today (May 3) is the last date of filing nomination papers.

Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday declared Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate from the Rae Bareli. A minister of state in the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh headed by saffron-robed chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Dinesh Pratap Singh lost to Sonia Gandhi in the previous Lok Sabha election in 2019.

Rae Bareli was the only Lok Sabha seat which Congress had won in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The seat has been with the Gandhi family since 1952 with Feroz Gandhi, husband of Indira Gandhi, emerging triumphant from there.

Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat had been represented by Sonia Gandhi for a long time before she opted out of electoral politics this year and has become a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament.

In an emotional note to voters of Rae Bareli, Sonia had hinted at the possibility of a family member contesting from the seat.

In another decision, Congress also announced that Kishori Lal Sharma will be its nominee for Amethi where Rahul was defeated by BJP leader Smriti Irani in the previous parliamentary poll five years ago. Rahul had then shifted to Wayanad where he won by more than four lakh votes.

Congress is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh under a seat-sharing deal with Samajwadi Party. The state is electorally crucial as it sends the highest number of Lok Sabha members (80).

Since Independence, Congress has lost Amethi and Rae Bareli only thrice. The party suffered defeat for the first time in Rae Bareli in 1977 when Indira Gandhi lost to Raj Narain in the elections post-Emergency (1975-1976). The party lost the seat again in 1996 and in 1998 but has not been defeated there since then. in Amethi, Congress lost in 1977, 1998 and 2019.