According to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi has chosen to keep his seat in the Raebareli Lok Sabha in Uttar Pradesh and to leave Wayanad in Kerala. Kharge also declared that Priyanka Gandhi will run for the Wayanad seat, which is vacant. This will be her first experience with electoral politics.
Following a meeting at his Delhi home, Kharge spoke to the media and added that a decision about the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) position will be made eventually. Rahul may be the LOP in the Lok Sabha this time around because Congress has the necessary number of members, according to rumours.
राहुल गांधी जी रायबरेली की सीट से सांसद रहेंगे.
वे वायनाड से भी चुनाव लड़े, वहां के लोगों का प्यार भी उन्हें मिला है. इसलिए हमने यह तय किया कि वायनाड से श्रीमती प्रियंका गांधी जी चुनाव लड़ेंगी.
: कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष श्री @kharge pic.twitter.com/A2iIr77MkB
— Congress (@INCIndia) June 17, 2024
After the announcement, Priyanka Gandhi told the press, “I am happy to contest from Wayanad. I will work to ensure his absence is not felt there. I will support my brother in both Raebareli and Wayanad. I am not nervous.”
#WATCH | Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra says, “I am very happy to be able to represent Wayanad and I will not let them feel his (Rahul Gandhi’s) absence. I will work hard and I will try my best to make everyone happy and be a good representative. I have a very old… pic.twitter.com/Ii7kcrrlKC
— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2024
Rahul ran for two seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections: Wayanad in Kerala and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. He was forced to give up one of his seats because a member of parliament may only hold one.
While Wayanad served as Rahul’s second seat in the 2019 elections and the site of his second consecutive victory, Raebareli is the stronghold of the Gandhi family within the Congress. After losing to Amethi in UP, another stronghold of the family, and his seat for the preceding 15 years, Rahul was elected as the MP for Wayanad in 2019.
Prior to the Lok Sabha elections this year, there was speculation that Rahul may run from a seat other than Wayanad. It was unclear if he would run from his previous Amethi seat or from Raebareli, the seat held by his mother Sonia Gandhi. Prior to the elections, Sonia resigned her seat from Raebareli and joined the Rajya Sabha.
Raebareli, like Amethi, which Rahul served as the Lok Sabha representative for fifteen years, is a stronghold of the Congress party. Sonia was first elected as an MP from Amethi in 1999. When Rahul, her son, decided to run for office in 2004, Sonia relocated to Raebareli, and Rahul ran from Amethi.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was previously an MP from Raebareli prior to Sonia, was also Sonia’s mother-in-law and Rahul’s grandmother. Rahul’s father, Sonia Gandhi, and the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were both Amethi MPs.
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