Rahul Gandhi avoids face-off with Smriti Irani in Amethi; shifts to Raebareli for second Lok Sabha bid

Rahul Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha from Raebareli seat

May 3, 2024

Rahul Gandhi ditches Amethi; to contest From Raebareli

Amid speculations about the Congress candidates in its bastion – Amethi and Raebareli, Rahul Gandhi has avoided a face-off with Smriti Irani in Amethi, and will now contest from Raebareli.

Gandhi-Nehru family remained undefeated from Amethi up until the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which Smriti Irani won over the dynast party.

The announcement comes as the nomination process for Amethi, Raebareli ends today. The Congress also fielded K L Sharma from Amethi against Smriti Irani.

Rahul Gandhi and K L Sharma will file their papers today — the last day for filing nominations for the fifth phase of the election on May 20.

Earlier, sources did say that Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Amethi, but a final announcement was awaited from the first family of the Congress.

Amid the mounting suspense, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that ‘nobody is scared.’ He further said that the party’s central election committee (CEC) had empowered Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalize the candidates for Amethi and Raebareli.

Before the announcement, Ramesh said yesterday, “My expectation is that in the next 24-30 hours, the Congress president will finalize and a decision taken by him will be announced,” Ramesh said in response to a question at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here. “Till that is done all the information, all so-called office orders are fake.”

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