Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli seat on Friday. The constituency will go to polls in the fifth phase of general elections on May 20.
Rahul Gandhi, accompanied by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, and her husband and businessman Robert Vadra, submitted his nomination papers.
Earlier in the day, the Congress announced Rahul Gandhi as the party candidate from Raebareli. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, recently vacated the Lok Sabha seat when she became a member of the Rajya Sabha. Sonia Gandhi, a four-time MP from Raebareli, won’t contest the Lok Sabha Elections this time.
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Rahul Gandhi has been pitted against Congress defector and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli. Dinesh Singh is also a Minister of State (Independent Charge) in Uttar Pradesh.
On Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Raebareli, Dinesh Pratap Singh said, “Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have betrayed the people of Raebareli. The people of Raebareli chose Sonia Gandhi as an MP, but she gave the power to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and she later gave it to Kishori Lal Sharma. In the last 10 years, neither Priyanka Gandhi Vadra nor Sonia Gandhi met the people of Raebareli.”
Rahul Gandhi is also seeking a fresh term in the Lok Sabha from the Wayanad seat in Kerala, which polled in phase 2 of the general elections on April 26. Gandhi is currently a sitting MP from Wayanad. He has also been an MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi. However, he lost the seat to Union Minister Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
How Smriti Irani reacted?
Smriti Irani, a BJP leader, had said that Congress had conceded defeat from the constituency even before a vote was cast, adding that the opposition party would not have fielded a “proxy candidate” (Kishori Lal Sharma) if they were hopeful about the outcome of the polls.
“No member of the Gandhi family contesting from Amethi in itself is an indication that Congress has accepted its defeat from Amethi even before elections,” Irani was quoted by ANI.
She added that Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Raebareli is a “victory” for the people in Amethi.
Voting in both Amethi and Raebareli will be held on May 7, in the fifth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. The counting of votes is scheduled for June 4.
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Published: 03 May 2024, 02:08 PM IST