Would want a Gandhi to contest the seat, says Cong's Amethi bet KL Sharma

Congress's Amethi candidate Kishori Lal Sharma on Friday said he would rather a Gandhi fight from the seat, but he cannot refuse the party's order which asked him to fight the election.

Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded by the Congress from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat a longstanding bastion of the Gandhi family, breached in 2019.

"Even today, I want the Gandhi family to contest the election from Amethi. But I consider it my duty to accept the order given by the family," Sharma told PTI at the Gauriganj Congress office here.

"I have always been a 'sevak' of the Gandhi family and whatever responsibility the Gandhi family has entrusted to its sevak, I will fulfil it," he said.

After days of suspense, Congress on Friday fielded Sharma, a representative of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and before them, Rajiv Gandhi, in Amethi, as its candidate for the seat.

Sharma is scheduled to visit the Collectorate later in the day and file his nomination papers before District Election Officer Nisha Anant.

The BJP has fielded the sitting MP from the seat, Union Minister Smriti Irani, who had ended the three-term streak of Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, defeating him by more than 55,000 votes.