Rahul Gandhi Keeps Rae Bareli, Priyanka To Contest From Wayanad
NEW DELHI (ANI) – Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will keep his Rae Bareli seat while the party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will make her electoral debut from the Wayanad seat, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced on June 17. The call on which constituency to vacate was taken as the last day for doing so is June 18.
The decision came after top party leaders, including general secretary KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi held a meeting at the residence of Kharge to decide which Lok Sabha seat Rahul Gandhi would retain.
“The party has decided that Rahul Gandhi should keep the Raebareli seat because it has been close to him and his family for generations. The people of the constituency and people in the Congress feel this will be good for the party as well. More importantly, he has received love from the people of Wayanad and people there want him to retain the seat. But the rules don’t allow this. So, we have decided that Priyanka ji will contest from Wayanad,” Kharge said.
Rahul Gandhi won the seat of Rae Bareli by defeating BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh by a margin of 3,90,030 votes. The Congress leader also won the seat of Wayanad, which paved his entry to the Lok Sabha in 2019. He defeated Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Annie Raja by 3,64,422 votes.
He said he has an emotional connection with both Raebareli and Wayanad. “Priyanka will contest from Wayanad,” he said, “but I will also go there frequently, and we will fulfill all the promises we made to the people there. I have an old connection with Raebareli, and I am happy to represent them, but it wasn’t an easy decision. It was a tough one. The people of Wayanad stood with me and supported me. They gave me the energy to fight in a very difficult time. I will be available for the people of Wayanad.”
“I am confident she (Priyanka) will win the election and she will be a very good representative. The people of Wayanad can think about it like this: They will have two MPs. One is my sister and the other is me. My doors are always open to you for the rest of my life, and I love every person in Wayanad,” he added.
NDTV reported that Kharge had asked the Gandhi siblings to take a decision but had let it be known that he would like both to contest. Priyanka had, however, chosen not to. The media report said that she did not want to give the BJP a reason to hurl allegations of dynastic politics at the Congress given that her brother and mother were already members of Parliament.
