NEW DELHI: The declaration of
Rahul Gandhi
to contest the Lok Sabha election from
Rae Bareli
, Uttar Pradesh, has brought attention back to the VVIP constituency, which was first represented in the Lok Sabha by his grandfather
Feroze Gandhi
, who held the seat in the first two elections after Independence.
Feroze Gandhi’s wife and former prime minister
Indira Gandhi
later nurtured and strengthened the foundations he had laid, winning from the seat in 1967, 1971, and 1980.
Friends and family members of the
Gandhi family
followed in representing the constituency.
In 1980, Indira Gandhi contested from both Rae Bareli and Medak in Telangana, choosing to retain the Medak seat. Arun Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi’s right-hand man, won the 1980 bypoll and subsequently in 1984. Other Gandhi family members and aides, such as Sheila Kaul, also represented Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha. The only times the
Congress
did not represent the seat were in the wake of the Emergency in 1977, when Janata Party’s Raj Narain defeated Indira Gandhi, and in 1996 and 1998, when BJP’s Ashoke Singh won.
Sonia Gandhi, upon entering electoral politics, initially chose to contest from the neighboring Amethi Lok Sabha seat in 1999, which her husband Rajiv Gandhi had previously held. She later vacated the seat for her son Rahul’s debut in politics in 2004. Sonia Gandhi subsequently held Rae Bareli four times between 2004 and 2019, although her winning margins began to decrease in recent years.
The party’s decision to field Rahul from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi is based on the conclusion that Rae Bareli is a safer seat for the former Congress president, who lost Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019 by nearly 50,000 votes. The Congress believes that Rae Bareli’s historical, emotional, and electoral importance for the Gandhi family is higher than that of Amethi.
In her farewell message to the people of Rae Bareli on February 15, Sonia Gandhi expressed confidence that the seat, which has always stood by her and the Gandhis, will continue to support her family in the future.
She informed voters that she will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls due to health and age issues, while also hinting at the possible entry of a family member from Rae Bareli. “I am proud to say that whatever I am today, I am because of you, and I have always done my best to honour your trust. Now on account of health and age issues, I will not contest the next Lok Sabha election,” she said in the message.
Sonia Gandhi entered the Rajya Sabha for the first time, becoming the second member of the Gandhi family to do so after Indira Gandhi, who was a member of the upper house from 1964 to 1967. In her message to voters, Sonia Gandhi emphasized the deep-rooted ties her family has with Rae Bareli, noting that the constituency sent her father-in-law Feroze Gandhi to the Lok Sabha in the first general election held after Independence, and later accepted her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi.
“You allowed me space to walk along on this shining path. I came to you after losing my mother-in-law and husband and you accepted me with open arms,” the former Congress chief said.
Rahul Gandhi will file his nomination from the constituency today. He will be pitted against BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh. He had been fielded by the party from the seat in 2019 too.
