Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that the names of party candidates for the prestigious Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh will be announced in a "few days."
Addressing a press conference, he claimed that though the BJP says the corrupt must be put in jails, when leaders facing corruption charges join the saffron party, they are "put on the lap" and sent to the Rajya Sabha or assembly.
"You have to wait for a few more days... when the names of candidates come from people to me and I sign the notification, it will be announced," he said when asked about candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies.
"Those questioning Congress leaders for changing constituencies must also tell me how many times have (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and (Lal Krishna) Advani changed their seats," Kharge said, when asked about the BJP criticising Rahul Gandhi for fighting the elections from Kerala's Wayanad instead of Amethi.
The suspense continues over who will be fielded in the Gandhi family bastion constituencies, Rae Bareli and Amethi.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is speculated to contest the Rae Bareli seat following her mother Sonia Gandhi's four-term tenure as MP.
Former party president Rahul Gandhi expected to contest the Amethi seat, having won it three times in 2004, 2009, and 2014, but lost to the BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019. If nominated, the Wayanad MP will face Irani for the third consecutive time.
Amid the ongoing suspense over the Congress's candidate for Amethi, posters seeking the candidature of Robert Vadra, husband of Priyanka Gandhi, cropped up outside the local offices of Congress in Amethi and Gauriganj on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, TNIE had earlier reported that the process of nominations for the key constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli commenced on Friday and will continue till May 3. Congress insiders claim that the formal announcement of the names of the Gandhi scions is likely to be made after the CEC meeting slated for today.
In an apparent reference to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kharge claimed that Congress is not affected by people who "grew up in the party and left it later."
"Congress is like a flowing river; it is not affected by a few persons leaving it," he asserted.
Slamming the rebel leaders who quit the party and later joined the BJP, Kharge said that if Congress was so bad, then why did they spend 30–40 years of their lives here?
"What is sad is that those who were nurtured by the Congress party and became leaders also say the same. If Congress was so bad, why did you spend 30–40 years of your life on it unnecessarily? I don't know what has happened to them, but they too criticise Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi," he added.
The Congress National President also emphasised that the 2024 election is very important, as it is to save the Constitution and democracy.
Further, lashing out at PM Modi over his "tight slap" reaction after the Supreme Court rejected requests for 100% VVPAT verification of votes punched into EVMs, Kharge said that it is a habit of Modi to say such things.
"It is Modi's habit to speak such things. The plea was by an advocate, not my party. It was done by lawyers and NGOs," he said.
(With additional inputs from ENS, PTI and ANI)
