Rae Bareli or Wayanad: Which seat will Rahul Gandhi keep? He says this

Calling the 2024 Lok Sabha election results "the biggest step to protect India's Constitution", Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the country has said it does not want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "run the country".

In a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi said, "This was a fight to save the Constitution of the country and has emerged victorious in it. The country has said that they do not want Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to run the country."

He said that Modi and Shah "captured" constitutional institutions and threatened them.

According to data from the Election Commission (EC), Gandhi was leading on both the seats he was fighting on, Wayanad and Rae Bareli. In Rae Bareli, he was ahead of BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh by 389,341 votes.

In Wayanad, Gandhi was declared winner with a margin of 364,422 votes. He won a total of 647,445 votes, defeating the Communist Party of India's Annie Raja, who won 283,023 votes.

In 2019, Gandhi won from Wayanad and lost from Amethi.

Will Rahul Gandhi drop Rae Bareli or Wayanad?

In the press conference, Gandhi said that he had not yet decided which seat out of Wayanad or Rae Bareli he would drop. "I have not decided that yet," he said.

According to the rules in India, if a candidate wins from two seats, he needs to forgo one of them. A bypoll is then conducted on that seat later.

Gandhi also offered special thanks to the electorate of Uttar Pradesh for supporting Congress and "protecting" the Constitution.

"Country's poorest people have done the job of saving Constitution," he added.

Will the INDIA bloc contact Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu?

Asked if the INDIA bloc would get in touch with Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu to decide on a future course of action, Gandhi said that it would be decided after the alliance's meeting tomorrow.

Earlier, Sharad Pawar said that he was not sure if the INDIA bloc would be able to form the government or not.