The Politics Behind Rahul Gandhi's Move From Amethi To Rae Bareli In 2024 Polls

Congress has fielded Kishori Lal Sharma from Amethi, while Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Rae Bareli.

(Kamran Akhter/ The Quint) 

In a decision that has taken many by surprise, the Congress party has decided to field a non-Gandhi family member from Amethi in the Lok Sabha polls, while Rahul Gandhi will be contesting from Rae Bareli. Kishori Lal Sharma, an Amethi old hand, who has long been a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from Amethi.

On Friday, 3 May, just hours before the deadline to declare nominations for the two seats, the Congress ended all suspense surrounding what have traditionally been among the most important seats for the party.

Rahul Gandhi, who had been a three-time MP from Amethi since 2004, lost the seat in 2019 to BJP’s Smriti Irani. This time, the family scion has altogether given up the contest from the seat and has instead shifted to Rae Bareli—another familial bastion—given how his mother Sonia Gandhi became a Rajya Sabha MP earlier this year. Sonia Gandhi had been a Rae Bareli MP since 2004.

Both the seats will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.

Behind Rahul Gandi's Move To Rae Bareli

Besides Rae Bareli, Gandhi is also seeking a recontest from Wayanad, from where he is the sitting MP. For weeks now, there had been speculation over whether Gandhi will choose the Amethi seat or the Rae Bareli one, and there was also growing clamour around Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry into electoral politics from either of these two seats. However, by Thursday evening, it became clear that Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli. The Congress waited till the eleventh hour to declare his candidature, only after BJP had declared its Rae Bareli nominee: Dinesh Pratap Singh. Singh had lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Rae Bareli by a significant margin.

Sources say that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was keen that Gandhi contest from Amethi, as the party’s internal surveys as well as ground reports suggested that Smriti Irani, the sitting MP and BJP’s repeat candidate, is battling major anti-incumbency in the constituency. Gandhi was reluctant on giving up his Wayanad seat, even if he contested and won from Amethi, say sources.

However, internal party surveys of the Congress made it clear that Rae Bareli is the ‘safer’ seat and thus requires a Gandhi face to be fielded. Sources also say that the leader of the party’s INDIA ally, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, relayed to the Congress that it is imperative that a Gandhi family member contest from Rae Bareli. Thus, after all this deliberation, Gandhi is now officially a candidate from Rae Bareli.

Who is Kishori Lal Sharma, Congress' Amethi Candidate?

Congress’ Amethi candidate, Kishori Lal Sharma has been deeply entrenched in the region’s politics. “Our family has had a long association with Kishori Lal Sharma ji... Kishori Lal Ji's loyalty and dedication towards duty will definitely bring him success in this election,” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra posted on X on Friday morning.

Sharma has had close ties with the Gandhi family for over four decades now. Sharma, originally from Ludhiana, Punjab, first came to Amethi around 1983 and has been working in the constituency since then. Around this time, Sharma also grew close to former PM Rajiv Gandhi. After Rajiv Gandhi's demise, Sharma continued to maintain ties with the Gandhi family, even as the BJP began to gain ground in Rae Bareli in the 90s in both Amethi and Rae Bareli. Sharma is seen as instrumental in helping the Congress regain momentum in both these constituencies at the ground level, and was a close representative of Sonia Gandhi in her electoral debut in Amethi in 1999, which she won.

After Sonia Gandhi vacated the Amethi seat for her son Rahul Gandhi, Sharma continued to work with him, while also managing affairs in Rae Bareli.

Soon after his candidature, Sharma thanked the Congress leadership for fielding a “small party worker” in their “big family seat”. “I have been serving this seat for 40 years. I came here in 1983 as a Congress youth worker,” Sharma said. Sharma, who has been a grassroots worker and managed many booth level wins for the Congress in the past, will be going up against BJP’s Smriti Irani in the polls.