Rahul, Priyanka unlikely to contest from Amethi, Rae Bareli

New Delhi: The suspense on whether top Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest the Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seats has deepened with only two days left for the nomination process to end.

Amethi and Rae Bareli are considered traditional pocket boroughs of the Gandhi-Nehru family as its members have represented the seats for several decades.

The siblings were away from any public appearance on Wednesday. 

Gandhi will be in Karnataka on Thursday while Vadra will be seen campaigning in Madhya Pradesh. This leaves just a day for them to file nomination papers on Friday if they contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Senior journalist Shekhar Iyer told NewsDrum that the decision on these two seats has been taken.

“Fearing the defeat, it has been decided that the Gandhi family will not contest from their bastions in Amethi and Rae Bareli. It is just that they are not revealing. The delay could also be attributed to any possibility of change in the decision at the last moment but the probability of that is just 1%,” Iyer said.

“Had they opted to fight, they would have reached there to make a noise,” he added.

“The script to explain the decision is ready. The party is likely to say that the campaign against Modi will be sharpened irrespective of the siblings’ status as MPs. The script will read out that the Gandhi family is not greedy for power and it will continue with its fight against the BJP-RSS ideologies,” Iyer said.

Iyer cited the example of 2004 when Sonia Gandhi appointed Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister.

This would be the first time in several decades that the Gandhi family would leave their bastions if Gandhi and Vadra decided not to contest.

The Amethi seat has been represented by Gandhi since 2004 and he remained a member of Parliament from the constituency for three consecutive terms till 2019 when he was defeated by BJP's Smriti Irani. Gandhi currently represents the Wayanad constituency in Kerala from where he had also contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.

The Rae Bareli constituency was represented by Sonia Gandhi from 2004 to 2024. Prior to that, Sonia Gandhi had represented the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency after she entered politics and contested for the first time in 1999.

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

Amid the mounting suspense, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday that "nobody is scared" and a decision on the matter would be announced in the next 24-30 hours.

He said that the party's central election committee (CEC) has empowered Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalise the candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli.

"My expectation is that in the next 24-30 hours, the Congress president will finalise and a decision taken by him will be announced," Ramesh said in response to a question at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.

"Till that is done all the information, all so-called office orders are fake," he said.

Asked why there is a delay in taking a decision and if the Congress was "scared" in fielding Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Ramesh said, "There is no delay. Has the BJP not announced its candidates in Rae Bareli? Smriti Irani is a sitting MP. Nobody is scared, discussions are ongoing, and the Congress president has been authorised." "There is no delay, there is time till May 3," he said.

The Congress has forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven phases starting April 19. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.