NEW DELHI: For the first time in 25 years, no member of the Gandhi family will be running for election in Amethi, a Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh that has long been associated with the Gandhis. Since 1967,
Amethi
has been represented by a Gandhi family member for approximately 31 years.
However, in the 2019 general election, the Congress stronghold was breached when BJP’s Smriti Irani defeated
Rahul Gandhi
by more than 55,000 votes.
In 2014, Rahul Gandhi had won the seat for the third time in a row, polling 4,08,651 votes to Irani’s 3,00,748 votes.
In the upcoming election, Rahul Gandhi will contest from the
Rae Bareli
seat. It was earlier speculated that either Priyanka or Rahul Gandhi will be contesting from the Amethi constituency. This time, the grand old party has fielded Congress loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi.
“Our family has a long-standing relationship with Kishori Lal Sharma ji. He was always engaged wholeheartedly in serving the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli. His passion for public service is an example in itself,” Priyanka said while extending her wishes to Kishori Lal Sharma.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Kishori Lal Sharma expressed gratitude to the party leadership for giving him the opportunity to contest the polls from the Gandhi family’s “traditional seat” Amethi.
The last non-Gandhi candidate to contest from Amethi was Satish Sharma in 1998, who lost to the BJP’s Sanjaya Sinh.
Sonia Gandhi
reclaimed the seat in 1999, defeating Sinh by over 3 lakh votes. In 2004, she shifted to the neighboring Rae Bareli constituency, making way for her son Rahul Gandhi, who won the seat for three consecutive terms in 2004, 2009, and 2014.
The Amethi and Rae Bareli seats will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election. The BJP had earlier announced Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate from Rae Bareli, who had lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
