Lok Sabha Polls: All Eyes On Amethi And Raebareli As Congress Bastions Go To Polls In Fifth Phase On Monday

This would be the first time when a Gandhi family member is not fighting from the seat in UP. Congress had fielded loyalist KL Sharma against Union Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi.  

File photo of Rahul Gandhi and Kishori Lal Sharma.

The Congress bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli will go for polling in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha Elections on Monday. Meanwhile, several other seats including Mohanlalganj (SC), Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaisarganj and Gonda will also go for polling in the fifth phase in Uttar Pradesh.

The voting in the fifth phase will also decide the fate of five Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tomorrow.

No Gandhi In Amethi

This would be the first time when a Gandhi family member is not fighting from the seat in UP. Congress had fielded loyalist KL Sharma against Union Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi.  

The Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh has mostly been contested by the Gandhis since 1980 from the Congress, with the exception of the period between 1991 and 1998. 

#WATCH | Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh: Polling parties dispatch with EVMs to their respective polling stations ahead of the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024.#lokbaSabhaelections2024 pic.twitter.com/i6fJypkGfB

— ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2024

The Amethi seat has been represented by Rahul Gandhi from 2004, and he remained the MP from there for three consecutive terms till 2019. Rahul Gandhi lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi to BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani. 

Rahul currently represents Kerala's Wayanad constituency, where he has contested this time also.

Kishori Lal Sharma, better known as KL Sharma, is contesting from Amethi after having worked for the party for four decades. He is considered the key man who looked after the Amethi and Raebareli constituencies in the absence of the Gandhis.

The Congress has pinned its hopes on KL Sharma to gain the bastion back for the party and the Gandhi family.

Big Fight In Raebareli

Congress has fielded Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli, which was represented by his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi's opponent would be Dinesh Pratap Singh, who was announced as the BJP's pick from Raebareli on Thursday. Dinesh Singh lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Singh is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh and was with the Congress before switching to the BJP in 2018. He has been a member of the UP Legislative Council since 2010, winning elections first as a Congress member and then as the BJP’s candidate.

The Raebareli constituency was represented by Sonia Gandhi from 2004 to 2024 and is seen as the traditional seat of the Gandhi-Nehru family. Before fighting elections from Raebareli, Sonia Gandhi represented the Amethi Lok Sabha seat after her entry into politics and contested for the first time in 1999. 

The Raebareli seat was previously held by Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. In 2019, Congress won only one seat in Uttar Pradesh and that was Rae Bareli. 

The fate of 379 constituencies spread across 23 states and Union Territories is now decided after the fourth round of polling on May 13. 

The remaining three phases of polling will be held on May 20, May 25 and June 1. The counting of votes for all seven phases of Lok Sabha Elections will take place on June 4.