In the nation's capital, the Central Election Committee of the Congress Party held a meeting. The session proposed nominating Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi as candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli, respectively. The final decision has been left to the party president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Key leaders like KC Venugopal, Pratap Singh Bajwa, and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring were present at the CEC meeting.
Sources inform that the state election committee has recommended the names of Rahul Gandhi for Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi for Rae Bareli. These propositions have been forwarded to the central election committee, which in turn has left the final decision to the Gandhi family. It’s possible that today the Congress will announce their candidates for these high-profile seats.
The Historical Significance of the Amethi Lok Sabha Seat
Amethi is the 72nd district in Uttar Pradesh, officially established on July 1, 2010, by the Bahujan Samaj Party government. Initially named Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, it was later renamed to Amethi. This district has been a political stronghold of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, along with his wife Sonia Gandhi have represented this district. In the 2014 general elections, Rahul Gandhi won this seat, but in the 2019 elections, he was defeated by Smriti Irani of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Historical Importance of the Rae Bareli Seat
As a constituency, Rae Bareli has been a Congress bastion. It was Indira Gandhi's electoral district and from 1999, Sonia Gandhi has been elected MP here for five consecutive terms. Congress has faced defeat here three times. Rae Bareli covers five assembly constituencies, and as per the 2011 census, the district with nearly a population of 3.5 million has a density of 739 people per square kilometer. About 67.25% of the population is literate in Rae Bareli, with male literacy at 77.63% and female literacy at 56.29%.
