The Congress’s last-minute decision of fielding Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli Lok Sabha seat and Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi broke the party’s two records of sorts. First, it was after 43 years that the Congress announced a candidate at the eleventh hour. Second, after 25 years, Amethi will not have a Nehru-Gandhi clan candidate.
Office-bearers and party insiders said the names of the candidates for the two Uttar Pradesh seats could be finalised only in the early-morning hours on Friday – the last day for filing nominations for the fifth phase of polls on May 20. Accompanied by Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and brother-in-law Robert Vadra, former party president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers at the District Magistrate’s Office in Raebareli. The party also announced the candidature of Kishori Lal Sharma, the long-time loyalist of Congress, from Amethi, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Union Minister Smriti Irani.
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“Our family has had a long association with Kishori Lal Sharma ji. He has always been dedicated to serving the people of Amethi and Raebareli. His passion for public service is an example in itself. Today it is a matter of joy that the Congress Party has made Shri Kishori Lal Ji a candidate from Amethi. Kishori Lal Ji’s loyalty and dedication towards duty will definitely bring him success in this election. Best wishes,” posted Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on ‘X’.
On Thursday, the BJP announced Dinesh Pratap Singh, UP’s minister of state (independent charge) for horticulture, as its candidate from Raebareli.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 1981?
Although the Opposition and political analysts found the party’s eleventh-hour decision shocking, old-timers from Amethi said it was just a historic recurrence.
Ram Murti Shukla, 73, who hails from Amethi and is close to the Gandhi family, said Amethi is bracketed among the country’s hot seats and this is the only reason why even the smallest development on the seat matters. “On Friday, the last day for filing the nominations, the Congress eventually announced the name of Sharma. However, the party was caught in a similar situation in 1981, when, even after a series of marathon meetings, it couldn’t finalise the name of the candidate from Amethi,” said Shukla.
Shukla said the situation also drew in criticism from the Opposition that slammed the grand old party for its inability to shortlist a suitable candidate for its home turf. “It was then, on the day of filing nomination, that the party had announced the name of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who won with the highest vote share in 1981 bypolls (84.18%),” he added.
However, this was not the lone historic recurrence when it comes to Amethi.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 1998?
It is after 25 years that Amethi is seeing a non-Gandhi candidate. The last non-Gandhi candidate to contest from Amethi was Satish Sharma in 1998, who lost to BJP’s Sanjaya Singh. In the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, Singh scored 2,05,025 votes, defeating Congress’s Satish Sharma, who secured 1,81,755 votes. However, later Sonia Gandhi reclaimed the seat in 1999, defeating Singh by over three lakh votes. In 2004, she shifted to the neighbouring Raebareli constituency, making way for her son Rahul, who won the seat for three consecutive terms in 2004, 2009 and 2014.
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In 2014, Rahul Gandhi had managed a hat-trick, securing 4,08,651 votes, defeating BJP’s Irani who secured 3,00,748 votes. However, the party’s legacy was breached in 2019, when Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi by more than 55,000 votes.
The Congress has won Amethi 11 times in the 14 Lok Sabha elections held for the seat till date. The first Congress candidate to win from Amethi was V D Bajpai in 1967, and then again in 1971. In 1977, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay Gandhi contested the seat for the first time, but lost. In 1980 though, Sanjay won his first Lok Sabha election from the seat. Months after his death, his elder brother Rajiv Gandhi won the seat in a bypoll.