Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will continue to contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, sources have told news agency ANI. However, the bigger piece of information that the sources shared indicated that Priyanka Vadra may replace her mother, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, as the Congress candidate in Rae Bareilly.
New agency ANI attributed sources to confirm that Rahul Gandhi would contest from the Amethi constituency for the fourth consecutive time. He had first contested from this seat in the 2004 Lok Sabha election and retained his seat in the elections of 2009 and 2014.
Amethi is considered a pocket borough of the Nehru-Gandhi political clan. It is the seat from which four members of the family have made their political debuts. Rahul’s uncle, Sanjay Gandhi, first fought from the seat unsuccessfully in the post-Emergency 1977 Lok Sabha elections and won in 1980. After his death, Rahul’s father, Rajiv Gandhi took over from his brother and won the seat in 1981, 1984 and 1989. Rajiv also won the seat in 1991, after his assassination.
Rahul’s mother and previous Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi, too chose to make her electoral entry with this seat in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. She left the seat to Rahul and has won from Rae Bareilly in 2004, 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
