Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai on Monday stated that the newsly-constituted state's election committee has endorsed a resolution asking Gandhi family members to run for Lok Sabha seats in Rae Bareli and Amethi. He hoped that their names will appear on the party's next list of candidates. On Friday, the Congress unveiled its first list of 39 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, which includes Rahul Gandhi from Kerala's Wayanad.
There is conjecture that Rahul Gandhi would run from Amethi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Raebareli, a seat once held by Sonia Gandhi. Both seats are considered Gandhi family strongholds.
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Former Congress President Sonia Gandhi was elected from the Raebareli constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while her son Rahul was defeated by BJP candidate Smriti Irani in the Amethi
Speaking with PTI, Rai stated: "The state election committee of the Uttar Pradesh Congress passed a resolution unanimously on Sunday urging the Gandhi family to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli and Amethi."
"This is because the people of these parliamentary constituencies and the party workers want them to contest from here," he said.
Rai stated that the final call would be made by the Central Election Committee (CEC).
On March 6, Congress district president of Amethi Pradeep Singhal stated that Rahul Gandhi will be the party's candidate for Amethi and that his name would be released shortly.
As part of the INDIA coalition seat-sharing arrangement, the Samajwadi Party and its other partners would contest 63 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats, leaving 17 for the Congress. These 17 seats are represented by Raebareli, Amethi, Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj (formerly known as Allahabad), Maharajganj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, and Deoria.