The Congress’s Central Election Committee is scheduled to convene on Saturday, today to potentially finalize the candidature for party strongholds Amethi and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, as per sources informed India Today TV.
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Amidst fervent demands from party members, there’s a push for former party president Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi and for Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to stand for the Raebareli seat.
While Rahul Gandhi is currently contesting from the Wayanad seat in Kerala, Priyanka Gandhi has yet to enter the electoral fray.
The Congress’s Uttar Pradesh state election committee proposed Rahul Gandhi’s candidacy for Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi’s for Raebareli.
These seats were discussed in the previous Central Election Committee meeting, but the decision on contesting them was deferred to the Gandhi family.
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Rahul Gandhi, who held the Amethi Lok Sabha seat for 15 years until 2019, was defeated by BJP’s Smriti Irani in the last election. Irani, now a Union Minister, has repeatedly challenged Gandhi to run again from Amethi.
In Raebareli, there’s growing support for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest after her mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi vacated the seat upon her Rajya Sabha nomination.
Amethi and Raebareli are slated to vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20.
Meanwhile, phase 2 of the Lok Sabha elections witnessed a voter participation rate exceeding 63%. A total of 1,202 candidates contested, comprising 1,098 males, 102 females, and two transgender individuals. Despite participation, voters from four villages in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra boycotted the polls, while Bru voters in Tripura cast their ballots for the first time.