NEW DELHI: As the Central Election Committee (CEC) of Congress is set to meet on Thursday to decide the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, speculation is rife that the candidature of Gandhi siblings Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi and Rae Bareli respectively will be discussed in the meeting.
Though the central leadership is tight-lipped about the contest, sources said that there is a unanimous view in the party that Rahul Gandhi should contest from Amethi and Priyanka make her electoral debut from Rai Bareli, which was vacated by her mother and Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi.
Another leader said that there is a possibility that only one of the siblings would contest the polls from either of the two seats. “There is a clamour from party workers in Amethi and Rai Bareli to field Rahul and Priyanka. However, there is also a view that the party will be spreading it too thin if both are in the fray. We know it is not an easy task in UP to challenge the mighty BJP. The CEC will discuss all the aspects threadbare and take a call,” said the leader, adding that the alliance with Samajwadi Party (SP) is a booster for the party.
Speculations on Rahul Gandhi returning to his former constituency Amethi intensified on Wednesday after Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Pradeep Singhal said that Gandhi’s candidature for Amethi would be announced soon.
Earlier senior Congress leaders had also dropped enough hints saying that people in Amethi want Rahul to contest elections from the constituency. Gandhi, a former Congress president, represented Amethi in Parliament from 2002 till 2019. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he lost to Smriti Irani by a margin of over 55,000 votes. He is currently an MP from Wayanad in Kerala.
Party insiders said that Rahul is likely to contest from Wayanad apart from Amethi. Ever since Sonia Gandhi moved to Rajya Sabha, it was anticipated that Priyanka is likely to make her electoral debut from the party’s stronghold Rae Bareli, a seat won by her mother five times.
EC warns Rahul
The Election Commission on Wednesday asked Rahul Gandhi to be more cautious in his public remarks in the wake of his ‘bad omen’ and ‘pickpocket’ jibes at PM. In December 2023, the Delhi HC said that the remarks were not in good taste and asked EC to act against him.