Suspense continues on Rahul-Priyanka’s candidature, no decision taken in Congress CEC, now the ball is in Kharge’s court.

 

A meeting of the Central Election Committee of Congress was held in the capital Delhi. In this, a request has been made to make Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi candidates from Amethi and Rae Bareli. CEC members, General Secretary in-charge of UP and leader of the legislative party have also requested to make candidates.

 

However, the final decision on this has been left to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. Many veterans including Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Pratap Singh Bajwa and Amarinder Singh Raja Vading attended the CEC meeting. According to PTI, in a meeting held on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Congress urged the top leadership of the party to field Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi from Amethi and Rae Bareli for the Lok Sabha elections. Sources said that AICC in-charge of party affairs in UP Avinash Pandey and CLP leader in the state Aradhana Mishra urged Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi to give tickets to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi on both these seats. In the meeting chaired by Kharge, all the members supported the views of the party leaders of Uttar Pradesh and left the decision to the top leadership. Sources said that a decision on whether Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi or not will be taken in a day or two. There is speculation that Rahul Gandhi may be fielded from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. During the CEC meeting, Lok Sabha candidates for the remaining five seats in Punjab were also discussed. Another CEC meeting is likely to be held on Punjab, on which consensus could not be reached at the moment, although all the seats were discussed. According to sources, the party will soon announce its decision for the Gurugram Lok Sabha seat as well.

 

#WATCH | Delhi: Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Partap Singh Bajwa and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring reach the AICC headquarters for the Congress CEC meeting pic. twitter.com/yycjw7fvQE

 

History of Amethi Lok Sabha seat Amethi is the 72nd district of Uttar Pradesh which was officially brought into existence on 1 July 2010 by the Bahujan Samaj Party government. Initially it was named Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar but it was changed to Amethi. It has been the political karmabhoomi of the Nehru-Gandhi family of India. Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandson Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia Gandhi have represented this district. Rahul Gandhi was elected MP from here in the 2014 general elections but in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he was defeated by Smriti Irani of the Bharatiya Janata Party. History of Rae Bareli seat As a constituency, Rae Bareli is a stronghold of the Congress. It has been the constituency of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi was elected MP from here for the fifth consecutive time since 1999. The Congress party has faced defeat from here thrice. Five assembly constituencies come under the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency. According to the 2011 census, this district with a population of about 35 lakh has 739 people living per square kilometer. 67.25 percent of the population of Rae Bareli is literate. Of these, the literacy rate of men is 77.63 percent and that of women is 56.29 percent.