RAE BARELI: Weeks of ‘will-he-won’t-he’ culminated Friday in
Congress
naming
Rahul Gandhi
as the candidate in the family bastion of
Rae Bareli
on the final day for nominations, setting the stage for the Gandhis and an entourage of loyalists to air-dash to the UP
constituency
just in time for the Wayanad MP to file his second set of papers this election.
TOI had reported in Friday’s edition that amid suspense over Rae Bareli and Amethi, Rahul was veering around to contesting from the former seat.
Congress’s nomination for Amethi, the other party fortress that Rahul contested and lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019, also went down to the wire. Gandhi loyalist
Kishori Lal Sharma
made the cut in a last-minute announcement, infusing some drama into the exercise as two Congress teams headed in different directions to beat the deadline.
“My mother has entrusted me with the responsibility of serving the constituency with great faith and has given me the opportunity to serve the community,” he wrote on X.
“In the fight against injustice, I seek the love and blessings of my loved ones. I believe that in this fight to save the Constitution and democracy, all of you are standing with me.”
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra quoted her mother Sonia Gandhi as telling her a few days ago, “My family in Delhi is incomplete; it becomes complete only in Rae Bareli.”
Sonia has been MP from Rae Bareli, first represented by her father-in-law Feroze Gandhi, since 2004.
Rahul arrived at Amethi’s Fursatganj by a charter plane at 10.30am, accompanied by Sonia, Priyanka, brother-in-law Robert Vadra, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Congress veterans KC Venugopal and Ashok Gehlot.
The team split into two groups, with Priyanka and Gehlot going to Amethi while the rest proceeded to Rae Bareli.
In Amethi, Priyanka joined nominee Sharma’s roadshow and appealed to people to vote for “those who speak the truth and stand for justice”.
Rahul and others reached the Bhuyemau guesthouse for a final check of his documents and waited for Priyanka to join them for the formality of the nomination. Around 1.30pm, Rahul’s cavalcade reached the Rae Bareli collectorate.
Samajwadi Party functionaries, including two sitting MLAs, were with the Gandhi family throughout the process.
About 30 minutes later, as confirmation arrived that Rahul had submitted his papers to the returning officer, Congress supporters erupted in celebration. Rahul left the collectorate around 2.45pm.
His next stop was a house in the heart of town. As in every election, the family of Gaya Prasad Shukla had organised a puja for the well-being and victory of the Gandhi family’s representative.
Gaya Prasad’s grandson Ramji Shukla told TOI that Indira Gandhi started the tradition in 1967 when she reached Rae Bareli for her nomination.
