By registering a historic victory from Rae Bareli parliamentary seat in 2024 general electins, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi broke the election winning records of his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi.
But, the tally of the number of elections won by Rahul and his mother Sonia Gandhi is equal — six times.
On May 18, two days before voting, Sonia had made an emotional appeal to the people of Rae Bareli at the ITI grounds.
” I am handing over my son. Adopt Rahul the way you accepted me. Whether I am there or not, Rahul will never disappoint you,” she had said. On this appeal of Sonia, voters gave a historic mandate to Rahul.
Rahul Gandhi has also made a record of winning six Lok Sabha elections this time. He has also saved his mother’s legacy in Rae Bareli. Among his mother, grandmother and father, Rahul Gandhi had won elections getting the most votes.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had won from Rae Bareli seat in 1967, 1971 and 1980 while Late Rajiv Gandhi won the election from Amethi parliamentary seat four times between 1981 and 1991. Sonia Gandhi became MP six times from Rae Bareli seat . After becoming a Rajya Sabha member in 2024, Sonia handed over her legacy seat to son Rahul.
Rahul Gandhi contested his first election from Amethi in 2004. After this, he became MP from Amethi in 2009 and 2014. Rahul Gandhi, who lost from Amethi in 2019, won from Wayanad in Kerala.
The Gandhi scion, who won four Lok Sabha elections, has registered a record victory from Rae Bareli and Wayanad seats in 2024. He has the record of getting the highest number of votes in his family — 7,06,369 from Wayanad seat in 2019.
However, Rahul Gandhi failed to break Sonia Gandhi’s record of winning the Rae Bareli parliamentary seat by winning the most votes. In the by-election held in 2006, Sonia had won by a margin of 4,17,888 votes. Sonia had also won the 2009 elections by a margin of 3,72,165 votes. Rahul Gandhi has so far broken his own record of win.
The voters of Rae Bareli accepted Sonia’s appeal, but now it is Rahul Gandhi’s turn. Sonia also said that Rahul will not disappoint her. Perhaps this was the reason why voters blindly supported Congress once again. The people of the district have expectations from the former Congress president.
Rahul, on his turn, also has a big target to fulfill the wishes of the people of the district.