Congress high command hinted that Rahul Gandhi can contest from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, from where he lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani in the 2019 polls, apart from the Wayanad seat.
According to Congress sources, he can be the party’s candidate from Amethi, and an indication to this effect was given by the party.
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The sources hinted that Rahul Gandhi would file his nomination from the Amethi seat after April 26 when the polling on the Wayanad seat is completed. He is contesting from Wayanad, Kerala where the voting is scheduled to be held on April 26.
Party leaders believe even now the Gandhi family does not need much campaigning on these traditional seats. Perhaps for this reason the party has so far refrained from revealing its cards on both the seats.
Voting in the Amethi seat is slated to be held in the fifth phase of polling on May 20 and the nomination process will start here on April 27.
According to the sources, the grand old party does not want to give a message to the voters of Wayanad before voting that Rahul Gandhi might leave their seat or that the Amethi seat is an alternative to Wayanad. Therefore, as per the strategy, Congress has not yet announced its candidate from Amethi.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi contested from Amethi as well as the Wayanad seat in Kerala. But he lost the election in Amethi to Union Minister Smriti Irani.
Meanwhile, Congress has released the list of its star campaigners for the second phase of elections in UP on Saturday night.
The 40 star campaigners of this phase include Congress National President Malikarjun Kharge, former President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pandey, State President Ajay Rai, Aradhana Mishra Mona, Salman Khurshid, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Ashok Gehlot, Pramod Tiwari, Sachin Pilot, Nirmal Khatri, Raj Babbar, and PL Punia.
