The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Wednesday that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's decision to run for Rajya Sabha is an admission of the party's "looming defeat" in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The BJP reacted after Gandhi filed her nomination papers in Jaipur for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan.
Her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, PCC Chief Govind Singh Dotasra, and Opposition Leader Tikaram Jully were all present at the nomination filing in the assembly building.
Commenting on the development, BJP IT department head Amit Malviya wrote on X, "After Congress' crushing defeat in Amethi, Rae Bareli was next. Sonia Gandhi's decision to run for Rajya Sabha is an admission of looming defeat. Malviya claimed that the Gandhis had abandoned "every supposed stronghold," with the former Congress president opting to run in the Rajya Sabha rather than the Lok Sabha elections from her family's pocket borough of Raebareli.
"The Congress will draw a blank in UP, despite 11 seats offered by the SP (Samajwadi Party)," the leader of the BJP said.
The Congress is expected to win one of Rajasthan's three Rajya Sabha seats in the upcoming elections. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's six-year term will end in April, leaving the seat vacant.
Sonia Gandhi will be serving her first term in the Upper House after five terms as a Lok Sabha MP.
The 77-year-old, who represented Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, was first elected MP in 1999 after becoming Congress president.
Sonia Gandhi announced in 2019 that this would be her last Lok Sabha election.
She became the Gandhi family's second member of the Rajya Sabha, succeeding former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who served in the Upper House from August 1964 to February 1967.
According to BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia, Gandhi filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections because she was unable to face her constituency's voters.
"This is fear of people. When you loot and commit corruption, you cannot face the people," he told reporters at the BJP headquarters, as reported by news agency PTI.
According to Bhatia, the Gandhi family has left Uttar Pradesh because they know that the BJP will win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming general elections.
"First, Rahul Gandhi lost and fled Amethi. Out of fear, Sonia Gandhi ji is now filing her nomination from another state, leaving Uttar Pradesh," said a BJP spokesperson.