Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi

Sonia from Rae Bareli

Sonia Gandhi has vacated the Amethi seat in favour of her son, Rahul, and has shifted to her mother-in-law's erstwhile constituency, Rae Bareli, held in the dissolved Lok Sabha by Satish Sharma.

Congress general secretary Ambika Soni released a list of 31 Lok Sabha candidates who have named over six states and added that a decision about Priyanka Gandhi's nomination "will be announced at an appropriate time."

If she does contest, Priyanka could choose a seat in south India, possibly Medak in Andhra Pradesh or Bellary in Karnataka.

Rahul Gandhi, who runs a computer consultancy firm in Delhi, will be contesting an election for the first time. His nomination ends months of speculation as to the succession issue in the Congress.

There is hardly any doubt that Rahul Gandhi, who will contest from a constituency that has been nurtured by successive generations of the Nehru Gandhi family, will win from Amethi.

Sonia Gandhi has violated a tendency that she has herself criticised in the past, of two people from the same family being given a ticket in the same election.

The party has named nine candidates for Maharashtra. Murli Deora's son Milind is contesting from Mumbai South. Suresh Kalmadi has been fielded from Pune, while Col Sudhir Sawant is pitted against Suresh Prabhu in Rajapur.

Gurudas Kamat has been renominated from Mumbai north east. However, film star Govinda's name has not been announced today, but neither has a candidate been named from Mumbai (North) against Petroleum Minister Ram Naik.

Defector Balasaheb Vikhe Patil who crossed over recently from the Shiv Sena to the Congress has been nominated from Kopargaon, while Youth Congress leader and organisation secretary Mukul Wasnik has been nominated from Buldhana.

In Chhattisgarh the Congress has nominated Parasram Bhardwaj from Sarangarh-SC and Dev Vrat Singh from Rajnandgaon.

Its former chief in Jammu and Kashmir GR Kar has been nominated from Baramulla, an issue that is sure to create a problem with the ruling Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) because it has claimed this seat as belonging to it. Choudhury Lal Singh has been fielded from Udhampur and Madan Lal Sharma from Jammu.

The Kerala names are all of sitting MPs. AC Jose has been fielded from Trichur and V.M.Sudheeran from Alleppey. Ramesh Chennithala from Mavelikara, Suresh Kodikunnil from Adoor(SC) and VS Sivakumar from Thiruvananthapuram.