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Posters in support of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have come up in UP’s Rae Bareli

Rae Bareli:

Supporters of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have put up posters in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, demanding that the party leadership picks her as the candidate for the Lok Sabha seat.

A traditional Congress stronghold, Rae Bareli has earlier been represented by former Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi, and is a prestige seat for the Congress. Interestingly, this is also the seat that Indira Gandhi lost to Raj Narain in the 1977 general election – the only sitting Prime Minister to lose a Lok Sabha contest.

For the past two decades, the seat has been represented by Sonia Gandhi, who has now become a member of Rajya Sabha.

The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the Rae Bareli seat. Amid speculation over the party’s choice for this prestige battle, supporters of Ms Gandhi Vadra have put up posters in the constituency. “Take Congress’s development work forward, Rae Bareli is calling, Priyanka Gandhi ji, please come,” a poster read. The posters have photographs of Sonia Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad. 

The BJP, too, has not announced its candidate for the Lok Sabha seat.

In the 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress managed to win Rae Bareli despite a wave in favour of the BJP. Therefore, there is immense interest surrounding the BJP’s pick for this seat and whether Sonia Gandhi vacating the seat will impact the Congress’s prospects.

In the 2019 election, the BJP had fielded Dinesh Pratap Singh from the seat. Mr Singh, who lost to Sonia Gandhi by a margin of 1.60 lakh votes, has said whoever the party chooses this time will have his full support. “I will help him fight elections with all my heart, body, mind, and wealth. It is my resolve to make the lotus blossom,” Mr Singh, now a state minister, recently said in a social post.

In Amethi, another prestige seat for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has retained Union Minister and sitting MP Smriti Irani as its candidate. This will be the third consecutive time Ms Irani will be contesting from Amethi. Following a defeat in the 2014 election, she had come back strongly in 2019 to defeat Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Amethi has earlier been represented by Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister, late Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress has not yet announced its pick from Amethi for the upcoming polls.