Ending all speculations, the Congress on Friday announced that Rahul Gandhi will contest from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat.
According to a communiqué issued by the Congress General Secretary in-charge of Organisation KC Venugopal, the Congress has fielded its former party chief Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency while Kishori Lal Sharma would contest from the Amethi parliamentary seat.
Dinesh Pratap Singh is the BJP’s candidate for the Rae Bareli constituency.
The former Congress president is also party’s nominee from Kerala’s Wayanad parliamentary constituency, which he currently represents. The voting in the Wayanad was held in the second phase on 26th April.
Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who represented the Rae Bareli constituency, was recently elected member of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
Sharma would contest as Congress nominee from the Amethi parliamentary constituency against BJP candidate and Union Minister Smriti Irani.
Notably, in the 2019 general elections, Irani defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.
The two candidates have been selected by the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), Venugopal said.
Earlier, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh said that the CEC of had empowered party president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalise its candidates for the two crucial Lok Sabha seats.
Elections to the Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha seats are scheduled to take place on 20th May. The last date for filing of nominations is Friday.