Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has decided to retain Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli Lok Sabha seat and vacate Wayanad in Kerala, said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Kharge further announced that Priyanka Gandhi will contest from the vacated seat of Wayanad. This will mark her debut in electoral politics.
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting at his residence in Delhi, Kharge further said that the decision over the post of the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) will be taken in some time. It has been speculated that Rahul could become the LOP in the Lok Sabha this time as Congress has the required numbers.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul had contested on two seats: Raebareli in UP and Wayanad in Kerala. As he can be a Member of Parliament from only one seat, he had to vacate one of them.
While Raebareli is the bastion of the Gandhi family of Congress, Wayanad was Rahul’s second seat in 2019 elections from where he won for the second consecutive time in this year’s election. Rahul became the MP from Wayanad in 2019 after he lost from Amethi in UP, another family bastion and his seat for the previous 15 years.
The suspense over Rahul’s seat
In the run-up to this year’s Lok Sabha elections, it was believed that Rahul will contest from a second seat besides Wayanad. The question was whether he would contest from his previous seat of Amethi or his mother Sonia Gandhi’s seat of Raebareli. Before the elections, Sonia had switched to Rajya Sabha and vacated her seat of Raebareli.
Like Amethi that Rahul represented in the Lok Sabha for 15 years, Raebareli is also a bastion of the Congress party.
In 1999, Sonia first became an MP from Amethi. In 2004, when her son Rahul entered electoral politics, Sonia moved to Raebareli and Rahul contested from Amethi.
Before Sonia, Sonia’s mother-in-law and Rahul’s grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was also an MP from Raebareli. Former PM Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia’s husband and Rahul’s father, was also an MP from Amethi.
Raebareli or Wayanad?
After Rahul won the Lok Sabha elections from both Raebareli and Wayanad, the question became which seat he would keep.
While Raebareli carries with it the legacy of Gandhi family, Kerala in the South India is seen as one of the bastions of the Congress where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not been able to make inroads despite outreach in continuous elections.
Moreover, the Congress and the wider INDIA bloc of the Opposition have witnessed a revival in UP in these elections. Of the 80 seats, the Congress won six and ally Samajwadi Party (SP) won 37. To further cement the party’s revival in UP where the party had been effectively routed over the past 10 years, it was expected that Rahul could opt for Raebareli and give up Wayanad.
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Rahul Gandhi to retain UP’s Raebareli, Priyanka Gandhi to contest from vacated Wayanad seat
