Cong workers hold sit-in, demand Gandhi family member as Amethi candidate

Amethi: Congress workers here in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday held a sit-in, demanding that the party name a member of the Gandhi family as its candidate from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat.

The constituency goes to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.

Only three days are left for the filing of nomination papers but the Congress is yet to declare a candidate for the seat, the party's district spokesperson, Anil Singh, said.

Leaders and workers, including Congress district president Pradeep Singhal and former district president Yogendra Mishra, were gathered at the party office here with posters reading "Amethi maange Rahul Gandhi. Amethi Maange Priyanka Gandhi (Amethi wants Rahul Gandhi or (his sister) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra)".

"People of the constituency and Congress workers want a member of the Gandhi family as their candidate. We want Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi to bring back its lost honour," Singh said.

The demonstrators demanded that the Congress immediately declare a candidate in Amethi and that its nominee be from the Gandhi family.

The seat was won by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2014. In 2019, Gandhi had fought the general elections from Wayanad in Kerala and Amethi. He lost Amethi to BJP's Smriti Irani.

Irani is the BJP's candidate this time too and she filed her nomination papers on April 29 for contesting from the constituency that was once regarded as a Gandhi family bastion.

Amid the suspense on who the Congress would field in Amethi, posters supporting Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra's candidature had surfaced in the constituency on April 24.

The seat has previously been represented by Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.