May 04, 2024 07:16 AM IST
Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from Rae Bareli, continuing the Nehru-Gandhi legacy. Locals express strong emotional bond with the Gandhi family.
Rae Bareli: A sea of people, jubilant and boisterous, cheered Congress leader Rahul Gandhi outside the district collector’s office on Friday as he filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections from pocket borough Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, marking the entry of the third generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family in the electoral arena of the high-profile constituency.
The former Congress president was accompanied by his mother Sonia Gandhi, who had represented Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat since 2004, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and brother-in-law Robert Vadra as he handed over his poll papers to district election officer Harshita Mathur around 2pm on the last day for filing nominations.
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Rae Bareli, the last bastion of the Nehru-Gandhi family and a seat that was represented by Rahul Gandhi’s grandparents Feroze and Indira Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi, will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth phase of the general elections. Gandhi is also seeking a second straight term as a Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad in Kerala that went to polls on April 26 in the second phase.
“Filing nomination from Rae Bareli was an emotional moment for me! My mother has entrusted me with the responsibility of the family’s workplace with great confidence and given me the opportunity to serve it…,” Gandhi posted on X.
Before filing his nomination, Gandhi and other family members went to the district Congress office where family priest Radhe Shyam Dixit performed a puja, keeping up with a tradition started by his grandmother Indira Gandhi in 1967, when she fought his first general elections from Rae Bareli, and continued by Sonia Gandhi since 2004.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary KC Venugopal, Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot were also present.
The Congress leaders arrived at the Fursatganj air strip in Amethi, and then headed for Rae Bareli, where a large number of Congress workers and supporters as those from ally Samajwadi Party (SP) turned up at the district collector’s office to cheer Gandhi, who will square off against BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh, who had lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2019, and Thakur Prasad Yadav of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
A festive mood gripped Rae Bareli with the presence of members of the Gandhi family. Several locals that HT spoke to mentioned about the strong emotional bond between the constituency and the Congress’s first family.
“I am 80 years old now. I have seen all candidates Feroze Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi. All development works in Rae Bareli have been done by the Gandhi family,” Lakshman Pandey, a stationary store owner in Rae Bareli, told HT.
Rae Bareli was first represented by Feroze Gandhi in 1952 and 1957. His wife and then PM Indira Gandhi won it in 1967, 1971 and 1980. Arun Nehru won it in 1980 and 1984. Sheila Kaul, Indira Gandhi’s aunt, represented the seat in 1989 and 1991. Gandhi family aide Satish Sharma won it in 1999 and since 2004, the seat has been represented by Sonia Gandhi, who decided to move to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year.
Lawyer Tripathi, who describes himself as an ardent BJP supporter, said: “It would be difficult to defeat Gandhi in this seat. Rae Bareli is synonymous with the Gandhis. Had the Congress fielded a non-Gandhi, they would have lost.”
BD Yadav, another lawyer, said: “The Congress manifesto is good. The BJP talks about Viksit Bharat in 2047, they don’t talk about unemployment. The vote transfer between SP and the Congress will be very smooth.”
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Saubhadra Chatterji is Deputy Political Editor at the Hindustan Times. He writes on both politics and policies.
