NEW DELHI, Mar 8, 2019 (BSS) – President of Indian Congress Rahul Gandhi
and his mother Sonia Gandhi will contest from Amethi and Raebareli
constituencies of Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming general election to be held
in April and May this year.
Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are among 15 candidates named by the
Congress in its first list released on Thursday for the national election
just weeks away, according to media reports here today.
The list named 11 candidates in Uttar Pradesh and four candidates in
Gujarat.
The Congress in its first list does not include Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,
who joined politics in January and was made the party general secretary in
charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
But, there was speculation that Priyanka Gandhi could contest from her
mother’s constituency, Indian private TV channel NDTV reported.
Priyanka Gandhi has, for years, campaigned for her mother and brother in
Raebareli and Amethi. Thursday’s announcement also ends speculation about
Sonia Gandhi’s retiring.
The Congress announced that it will contest all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh
after the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj
Party announced a grand alliance in January without the party.
The rivals-turned-partners made one concession for the Congress; they
said they would not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli.
The Congress list also included senior leader Salman Khurshid, who will
contest from Farrukhabad, where he had contested from and lost in 2014.
The other leaders on the list for UP are RPN Singh from Kushi Nagar, Imran
Masood from Saharanpur, Jitin Prasad from Dhaurahra, Annu Tandon from Unnao,
Rajaram Pal from Akbarpur, Brij Lal Khabri from Jalaun and Nirmal Khatri from
Faizabad.
In Gujarat, senior Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki will contest from
Anand. He had won the Lok Sabha elections from the seat in 2004 and 2009. But
he lost to Dilipbhai Patel of the BJP in 2014.
Raju Parmar will contest the elections from Ahmedabad West seat, Prashant
Patel will contest from Vadodara, and Ranjit Mohansinh Rathwa will contest
from Chhota Udaipur seat.