Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stressed that the Gandhi family was in Amethi for the politics of truth and for the victory of Kishori Lal Sharma, the party candidate, who filed his nomination papers on Friday.

Priyanka said,” People of BJP contest elections with money power but we will win by fighting with public power”. She told the party workers that this was their election to fight and to win.

“I have full confidence that you all will make the Congress candidate win,” Priyanka said while addressing the party workers at the Congress office here.

She also enquired about the well being of the workers and also appealed to them to work for the victory of K L Sharma.

Praising Sharma, she said ,”Kishori Lal ji knows every village of Amethi. He recognises everyone and has been monitoring the work here for a long time.”

Earlier, Congress candidate Sharma filed his nomination in the afternoon from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat which is considered to be the stronghold of the Gandhi family.

Before filing the nomination at the collectorate, he took out a road show from the Congress office where hundreds of party workers were present.

It is being said that Sharma was rewarded for his loyalty to the Gandhi family.

He is originally from Ludhiana, Punjab. In 1983, Rajiv Gandhi brought him to Amethi for the first time. Since then, he has stayed here. Even when the Gandhi family stopped contesting elections from here after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, Sharma continued working for the Congress.

After Sonia was elected MP from Rae Bareli, he worked here as her representative. When she did not contest the elections, Kishori was considered a contender from Rae Bareli, but the party fielded him from Amethi instead of Rae Bareli.

Gandhi family has held the Amethi constituency, one of the high profile seats of UP, since 1999 when Sonia Gandhi contested her first election from here.

Later she vacated this seat for her son Rahul Gandhi in 2004. Rahul won the elections in 2004, 2009, 2014 but lost in 2019 to BJP’s Smriti Irani.

In 1998, Captain Satish Sharma, close to the Gandhi family, had contested elections from this seat but lost to Sanjay Singh of the BJP. Since then, this seat has been continuously reserved for the Gandhi family.

Except in 1977,1998 and 2019, in all the Lok Sabha polls, Congress has won Amethi since independence.

Late Rajiv Gandhi won Amethi four times, Rahul thrice while Sonia Gandhi and Late Sanjay Gandhi once each.