New Delhi:
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha-to-Rajya Sabha shift this yr – from representing Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh to the state of Rajasthan – was purported to sign a change within the management construction of a celebration many see as struggling for relevance earlier than the final election.
Ms Gandhi – a 25-year veteran of the Decrease Home and the face of the Congress, in parliament and outdoors – this week stated she wouldn’t search re-election from Raebareli, a Congress stronghold beforehand held by Feroze Gandhi and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The 77-year-old Ms Gandhi this morning stated “health and increasing age” meant she wouldn’t contest the Lok Sabha election, and he or she known as on the individuals of Raebareli to “be with my family”.
That the Congress will discipline, as long as is feasible, a member of the Nehru-Gandhi household from Raebareli (significantly after the 2019 lack of its different UP stronghold, Amethi, to the BJP) is a given.
The query, then, is which member of the household will stand from Raebareli.
There’s widespread hypothesis Ms Gandhi’s daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will probably be that selection, and make her electoral debut from a seat as soon as held by her grandmother, Indira Gandhi; that selection appears all of the extra believable given the hanging resemblance between the 2.
Ms Gandhi Vadra, although, has ben right here earlier than – on the sting of an electoral contest. Fielding her from Raebareli may appear to be a protected wager, however reminiscences of Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi loss – to a strident marketing campaign by Smriti Irani – should linger, and provides the occasion pause.
A second successive defeat for a Gandhi will probably be a disastrous turn-up.
There’s additionally hypothesis Ms Gandhi Vadra may, in truth, contest the election, however not from Raebareli. She may, as a substitute choose to face Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
Usually requested this query up to now, Ms Gandhi Vadra has repeatedly stated she is able to do because the Congress asks and requires, a solution that has by no means absolutely settled the matter.
The one different possible possibility is Rahul Gandhi, who offset his Amethi loss by successful from Kerala’s Wayanad. There is no such thing as a indication, nevertheless, at current, Mr Gandhi, additionally busy with the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, is contemplating returning to the unstable politics of UP.
Successfully, that leaves the Congress with a twin downside – who to discipline from Amethi (probably towards a Smriti Irani raring to repeat her giant-killer feat) and who to place in neighbouring Raebareli.
In her open letter Ms Gandhi underlined the “close relationship” her household, and the occasion, has with the seat, saying, “Our family’s ties… run very deep… you made my father-in-law, Feroze Gandhi, win… after him, you made my mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi your own.”
Ms Gandhi additionally underlined her emotional join with the individuals of Raebareli, remembering she stood only some years after her husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated, and after having additionally misplaced her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi.
“After losing my mother-in-law and my life partner… I came to you and you spread your arms for me. In the last two elections, you stood by me like a rock… I can never forget this.”
The Congress has been crushed thrice right here – the primary time was in 1977, when post-Emergency elections took the seat from Indira Gandhi and gave it to the Janata Get together.
Ashok Singh of the BJP then claimed back-to-back shock wins in 1996 and 1998, when Indira Gandhi’s cousins, Vikram Kaul and Deepa Kaul, have been fielded.
