Congress workers sure Gandhis will contest from Amethi or Raebareli: Ajay Rai

Lucknow: The Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh are "confident" that either former party president Rahul Gandhi or general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the Lok Sabha elections from either Amethi or Raebareli, party state unit chief Ajay Rai said on Sunday.

Rai's remarks come a day after the Congress released a list of nine candidates from UP, without naming the candidates for Amethi or Raebareli seats, which were considered family bastions of the Nehru-Gandhis.

Rai, who has been given a ticket from Varanasi against Prime minister Narendra Modi, told PTI that the Congress workers have been constantly pressing on the party leadership to field Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi from Raebareli.

"Though we are confident, one thing is certain that at least one of the two will contest the election on one of these two seats," Rai said.

The Congress state president said it is the heartfelt desire of the party leaders and workers that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi should contest elections from Amethi and Raebareli respectively. However, the final decision on this matter has to be taken by the party leadership, he added.

On the question about the chances of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi contesting from Amethi and Raebareli respectively, he said, "If the party has not yet declared the candidates on these two seats, it means that the demand of the party workers is being considered." "After Holi, the names of the candidates for the remaining eight seats of Uttar Pradesh, including Amethi and Raebareli, will be declared," Rai said.

The Congress is contesting on 17 seats in UP as a party of the INDIA bloc. It declared its first list on Saturday in which besides Rai, it has given tickets to Imran Masood from Saharanpur, Danish Ali from Amroha, Ramnath Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri, Alok Mishra from Kanpur, Pradeep Jain Aditya from Jhansi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki, Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria and Sadan Prasad from Bansgaon.