Suspense on Rahul, Priyanka's LS seats: Rae Bareli, Amethi workers want Gandhis as candidates

AICC in-charge of UP Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat that it is for the Gandhi family to take a final call in the matter however there is a huge demand from workers from across the state that Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively. Reports Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:There was suspense around the candidature of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli and Rahul Gandhi from Amethi parliamentary seats ahead of the first Congress central election committee meeting on Thursday.

Priyanka is tipped to mark her Lok Sabha debut from Rae Bareli after her mother and sitting MP Sonia Gandhi moved to the Rajya Sabha while Rahul, who represented Amethi from 2004 to 2019 may contest the seat again.

“See, it is for the Gandhi family to take a final call in the matter but there is a huge demand from workers from across the state that Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively,” AICC in charge of UP Avinash Pande told this channel.

Days after the district Congress committees in the two parliamentary seats passed resolutions urging Priyanka and Rahul to contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively, scores of party workers from the area have been camping in the party’s national headquarters over the past few days demanding that the two Gandhi siblings should contest the coming Lok Sabha polls from the traditional Gandhi family bastions.

“Of course, all of us want Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to contest from Rae Bareli and Amethi. We want only members of the Gandhi family to contest the two seats,” former UP MLC and senior Amethi leader Deepak Singh told this channel.

According to local leaders, while the chances are bright for Priyanka in Rae Bareli given the huge sympathy factor that operates in favour of Sonia Gandhi, a new strategy would have to be made in Amethi based on the anti-incumbency of the sitting BJP MP Smriti Irani.

“Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay yatra and the rally in Amethi got a huge response from the public. The people have realized that they were taken for a ride over the past five years. They now want the Congress back in the seat. The people in the two seats have a special bond with the Gandhi family,” said Singh.

According to party insiders, though the benefit of an alliance with the SP would be there in the two seats, there was a concern over the shifting of three SP MLAs Manoj Pande, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Abhay Singh who have influence in the RaeBareli and Amethi region, during the Rajya Sabha polls.

“There would be no impact of these SP MLAs moving to the BJP. They have been exposed before the voters and the importance they are getting has angered the old saffron party workers. Besides, the Congress and SP workers are excited to work against the BJP in the two seats. This will be an advantage for us,” a senior AICC functionary said.

The presence of the Gandhi siblings would give a boost to the Congress prospects in UP but Rahul would have to factor in the expectations of his current Lok Sabha seat Wayanad in Kerala and similar demands from the party units in Telangana and Karnataka, where the BJP has a strong presence.

According to party insiders, the demand from Telangana and Karnataka is coming as Rahul contesting from Wayanad in 2019 helped the Congress prospects in Kerala.

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