Not Priyanka But Sonia in Raebareli: Cong’s First List for LS 2019

The first list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls has 11 names from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. 

(Photo: PTI)

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, while Sonia Gandhi would be contesting from Raebareli, as per the party's first list of 15 candidates that was released on Thursday, 7 March.

The announcement put an end to speculation that Sonia may not contest in the upcoming polls due to health reasons and the party's newly appointed general secretary in-charge (East UP) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be fielded from her constituency.

The list has 11 names from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat.

Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid would be contesting from UP's Farrukhabad. Notably, in the 2014 general elections, Khurshid came fourth contesting in the seat and lost his deposit.

Meanwhile, former minister of state in the Home Ministry RPN Singh is all set to contest from the Kushi Nagar constituency where he had been an MP in the 15th Lok Sabha. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, however, he was defeated by the BJP candidate.

President of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee Bharatsinh Solanki would once again be contesting from Anand, where he had been an MP from 2004 till 2014. He had lost out to the BJP candidate in the previous general elections.

Apart from Solanki, the other candidates named from Gujarat are – Raju Parmar from Ahmedabad West (SC), Prashant Patel from Vadodra, and Ranjit Mohansinh Rathwa from Chotta Udaipur (ST).

Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats out of which the Congress had won just two (Amethi and Raebareli) in 2014, while Gujarat has 26 seats and the Congress had drawn a blank in 2014.

This is the sixth time Sonia Gandhi is contesting Lok Sabha polls while for Rahul it is fourth.