A Gandhi should contest from Amethi, Raebareli, UP Cong panel tells high command

The newly formed state election committee of the UP unit of the Congress on Sunday “unanimously recommended” that members of the Gandhi family should contest from Amethi and Raebareli Lok Sabha constituencies.

While former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was elected from Raebareli constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections, her son Rahul was defeated by BJP’s Smriti Irani in neighbouring Amethi. Sonia was recently elected to Rajya Sabha, and the Congress has renominated Rahul from Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in its first list of 39 candidates.

At the first meeting in Lucknow on Sunday, the state election committee, led by AICC general secretary Avinash Pande, discussed the names for the 17 seats that the party is set to contest in UP as part of the INDIA alliance.

“A detailed discussion took place on Raebareli and Amethi Lok Sabha seats. Raebareli and Amethi have always been associated with the Gandhi family and these Lok Sabha seats have been close to them. Therefore, based on the sentiments of workers as well as office-bearers in Amethi and Raebareli, we have unanimously passed a proposal to request the party’s national president that whatever names are decided there, they should be from the Gandhi family. The final decision would be taken by them,” said Pande after the meeting.

During the two-hour-long meeting, the committee also discussed possible candidates for the other 15 seats. Sources said there were at least three other seats for which only one name was to be considered. They included state unit president Ajay Rai from Varanasi, former MLA Imran Masood from Saharanpur, and Tanuj Punia from Barabanki.

“On 11 Lok Sabha seats, the committee members looked into local caste equations and the profile of the applicants, and