New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi will file his nomination papers from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh on April 10. Meanwhile, former Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will file her nomination papers for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019 from Raebareli on April 11. If reports are to be believed, Congress’ general secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East) Priyanka Vadra is expected to accompany both of them (Sonia and Rahul) on the occasion.
Amethi is witnessing a contest between Rahul Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani. In the last Lok Sabha polls, she challenged Rahul Gandhi in his bastion and was defeated by a margin of over one lakh votes.
However, the Congress party’s vote share was reduced to 46 per cent in 2014 as against the earlier figures of 71 per cent and 66 per cent in the 2009 and 2004 elections, respectively. The BJP, whose vote share in Amethi remained in the single digits in 2004, garnered 37 per cent of the votes cast in 2014.
The seat has long been a stronghold of the Congress, which has not been defeated here in three decades — barring in 1998, when the BJP’s Sanjay Singh defeated Satish Sharma of the Congress by a margin of 23,270 votes. Amethi was regained by the Congress in 1999 when Sonia Gandhi was elected MP from there.
In Raebareli, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded former Congress leader Dinesh Pratap Singh to take on Sonia Gandhi