Will Rahul Gandhi contest from Amethi? Here's what the Congress leader said

There has been widespread speculation that Rahul Gandhi, who has already filed his nomination from Wayanad, will also contest from Amethi

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Amid speculation that he may also contest from Amethi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday, maintained suspense regarding his candidature from the high-profile seat. He stated that he would abide by the directives of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC), which is the highest authority for such decisions.

During a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi responded to a question about his candidacy in the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi or Raebareli by quipping, "This is Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP's] question, very good."

"Whatever order I will get, I will follow it. In our party, all these [selections of candidates] decisions are taken by the CEC," he added.

Rahul Gandhi's prediction for Lok Sabha polls
 

While the BJP has decided to field Smriti Irani again from the Amethi seat, Rahul Gandhi, who has also been re-nominated from Kerala's Wayanad, may also contest from Amethi.

Rahul has successfully won the Amethi seat three consecutive times since 2004. However, in 2019, Irani secured victory by 55,000 votes.

The Congress leader expressed confidence in a strong undercurrent favouring the INDIA bloc and predicted that the BJP would be limited to just 150 seats.

"I do not do prediction of seats. 15-20 days ago I was thinking BJP would win around 180 seats but now I think they will get 150 seats. We are getting reports from every state that we are improving. We have a very strong alliance in Uttar Pradesh and we will perform very well…," he said.

Rahul Gandhi attacks RSS, BJP
 

He also accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP of destroying the Constitution and the democratic system and said that the Prime Minister and the BJP don't want to discuss important issues like unemployment and inflation.

"This election is an election of ideology. On the one hand, RSS and BJP are trying to destroy the Constitution and the democratic system, and on the other hand, the INDIA alliance and Congress party are trying to defend and protect the Constitution and democracy. There are 2-3 big issues in the elections. Unemployment is the biggest and inflation is the second biggest but BJP is engaged in creating distractions…Neither the Prime Minister nor the BJP talks about the issues," said Rahul.

Rahul calls electoral bonds world’s biggest ‘extortion scheme’
 

Training his guns on PM Modi over the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme, he said it was the biggest "extortion scheme in the world."

"A few days ago, the Prime Minister gave a very long interview to ANI. It was scripted, but it was a flop show. The Prime Minister tried to explain electoral bonds in it. The Prime Minister says that the system of electoral bonds was brought for transparency, to clean politics. If this is true then why was that system cancelled by the Supreme Court. And secondly, if you wanted to bring transparency then why did you hide the names of those who gave money to BJP. And why did you hide the dates on which they gave you the money?" he asked.

"This is the biggest extortion scheme in the world. All the businessmen of India understand and know this and no matter how much clarification the Prime Minister wants to give, it will not make any difference. Because the entire country knows that the Prime Minister is the champion of corruption," he said.

Rahul further said that in the last ten years, PM Modi has reduced the system of employment generation by demonetisation, implementing wrong GST and by supporting big billionaires like Adani.

"The first task is to once again strengthen employment, for that we have given 23 ideas in our manifesto, one idea is the revolutionary idea - Right to Apprenticeship. We have decided that we will give the Right to Apprenticeship to all the graduates and diploma holders of Uttar Pradesh. There will be training and we will deposit Rs 100,000 per year in the bank account of the youth and we are giving these rights to crores of youth…We will make a law for paper leaks as well," he added.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav also called the INDIA alliance a "new hope" in Lok Sabha elections and stressed that there are many things in Congress' manifesto by which poverty can be eradicated.

"I understand that all the political parties and especially those who are the partners of the INDIA alliance are saying that they will give MSP and the day the Indian government increases the income of the farmers, poverty will go away," Yadav said.

WATCH: “Ye BJP wala question hai”: Rahul Gandhi reacts to questions on Amethi, Raebareli seats