On deciding to contest from Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi apparently made a calculated risk to solve several anomalies within and outside the party and hence retaining the legacy of Gandhi-Nehru family.
In this scenario, neither the Gandhi scion has anything to lose, nor do the people of Raebareli, who were longing to continue their support for the grand old party's first family. The seat is currently held by longest-serving Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who announced her retirement from electoral politics.
While Sonia has been elected to the Rajya Sabha and will continue as a parliamentarian, the Congress and Rahul, who are confident enough to secure a victory in Raebareli as well as his current Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, where he is contesting once again, will ultimately vacate the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seat to pave the way for his sibling, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The party also appeared to have concluded that Raebareli would be the safer seat for Rahul who lost Amethi to Smriti Irani last time by nearly 50,000 votes.
Sources in the party said the plans were already there that Priyanka could be fielded from Raebareli and Rahul from Amethi which he lost in 2019 but the party decided to avoid any controversy due to the continuous pitching by Priyanka's husband Robert Vadra through various platforms of media.
Though, Vadra was part of the group that accompanied Rahul to the nomination office along with Sonia, Priyanka and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accompanied the family.
Ever since the announcement, Rahul contesting from Raebareli is considered a masterstroke for several reasons which includes taking the reins from Sonia in a real sense so that he can focus on a pan India poll campaign as he has bigger responsibility to ensure that the INDIA Bloc wins more seats.
Furthermore, with the Congress focusing more on Southern India due to declining affairs in the north, Rahul has maintained that he does not want to abandon his Wayanad constituency. In the event of losing this Lok Sabha seat again against Irani, it would have been a significant blow to the leader of the largest political party. On the other hand, winning would have tarnished his image with the people of Amethi if he had chosen to leave after securing a victory. The party leadership which has fielded KL Sharma who is household name in Amethi as well Raebareli and is confident enough to wrest the seat from Irani, wants to send a message that even a simple Congress worker successfully ran down the BJP candidate.
Rahul filed his papers from Raebareli barely an hour before nominations closed for the Lok Sabha seat. The party ended the suspense over Amethi and Rae Bareli, announcing his candidature as well as Gandhi-Nehru family loyalist KL Sharma from Amethi, who too filed his papers amidst the presence of large number party workers. Polling in both parliamentary constituencies is on May 20.
A large number of Congress workers, and those from INDIA Bloc partner Samajwadi Party, turned up at both the Lok Sabha constituencies. After filing his nomination, Rahul and other family members went to the district Congress office where family priest Radhe Shyam Dixit performed a puja.
Sharma has been the key person who looked after the two prestigious constituencies on behalf of the Gandhis.
The last time a non-Gandhi was in the fray from the constituency was in 1998, when Satish Sharma, a close aide of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia, contested the polls but lost to the BJP's Sanjaya Sinh. BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh also filed his papers from Raebareli.
He had lost to Sonia in 2019. Singh had switched sides from the Congress in 2018, after being sent to the State Legislative Council twice by that party. BSP's Thakur Prasad Yadav also filed his nomination from Rae Bareli on Thursday.
Rahul is now contesting from a seat that has been held by his mother Sonia, his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his grandfather Feroze Gandhi in the past. Feroze Gandhi held the seat in the first two elections after Independence. His wife Indira Gandhi won in 1967, 1971 and 1980, followed by friends and family members of the Gandhis.
Arun Nehru won the 1980 bypoll and subsequently in 1984. Sheila Kaul, Indira Gandhi's aunt, represented the seat in 1989 and 1991.
The only time the Congress did not represent Raebareli was in the wake of the Emergency in 1977 when Janata Party's Raj Narain defeated Indira Gandhi, who was then the prime minister. And the BJP's Ashoke Singh won in 1996 and 1998. Sonia Gandhi won from Rae Bareli four times between 2004 and 2019.
When Sonia decided to leave Raebareli and switch to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan, she addressed an emotional message to people of the constituency. "After this decision, I will not have the opportunity to serve you directly but my heart and soul will always remain with you. I know that you will stand by me and my family in future, just as you have in the past," she said in the February 15 message.
