 "Rahul, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Priyanka")
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday announced his decision to retain the Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency (Uttar Pradesh) while giving up the Wayanad seat (Kerala), both of which he won in the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul's decision followed about two weeks after the election results were announced on June 4, aligning with Indian laws that allow an individual to contest the polls from two constituencies but retain only one.
Rahul's sister and senior Congress leader, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will now contest the Wayanad seat in the bye-elections, aiming to bolster Congress' presence in the constituency.
Why did Rahul Gandhi pick Raebareli?
Rahul's decision to retain Raebareli stems from his family and the Congress party's long association with the constituency since the beginning of the Lok Sabha elections in India.
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"Rahul Gandhi will retain his Raebareli seat because Raebareli has been close to him from before; that area has great attachment to the family," party President Mallikarjun Kharge said Monday on the development.
"I have an old relationship with Raebareli, I am happy that I will get to represent them again but it was a tough decision," Rahul himself remarked on vacating Wayanad.
The Congress has won the key Uttar Pradesh constituency in all Lok Sabha elections except 1977, 1996, and 1998. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Feroz Gandhi, Rahul's grandparents, have also represented the constituency in the past. In Raebareli, Rahul will aim to further his family's legacy. Before him, Sonia Gandhi held the seat from 2004 to 2019.
He won the Raebareli seat by the largest margin in Uttar Pradesh (nearly 400,000 votes) in this election, which indicates that his Bharat Jodo Yatra series had a significant impact on swinging public opinion in Congress' favour. Rahul also won in Wayanad by over 350,000 votes.
The party won 99 seats across India in the polls, marking a sharp jump from its 2019 performance when it won just 52 seats.
How Congress and SP dented BJP's hopes in UP
Moreover, Uttar Pradesh created the biggest dent in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) hopes of scoring a majority of 272 seats by itself. The saffron party won 240 constituencies, falling short of the threshold and was forced to join hands with National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies to form a coalition government. The party was reduced to 33 seats in UP from the 62 it won last time.
According to experts, Rahul's increased popularity among the masses, coupled with Akhilesh Yadav's 'PDA' strategy used to distribute Lok Sabha tickets in Uttar Pradesh, really worked for the Opposition.
Yadav's PDA strategy was aimed at wooing pichde (backwards), Dalit (scheduled castes), and alpsankhyak (minorities). The party won 37 seats out of the 68 it contested, the highest among any party in the state.
Congress' plans for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat
Rahul, who contested from both Amethi (Uttar Pradesh) and Wayanad in 2019, won only the Kerala constituency.
Considered a Congress bastion, Wayanad had been chosen for Rahul Gandhi in 2019 as the Congress aimed to improve its prospects following a humiliating defeat in the 2014 polls. The party had won just 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Wayanad shares its borders with two other states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Rahul's representation from there was seen as a means to reconnect with the people, boosting Congress' prospects in the south.
This year, the party won a total of 40 constituencies in the five southern states, a significant increase compared to 27 won last time.
Wayanad is a newer addition to the election map. It was carved out from Malappuram and Kozhikkode during the delimitation exercise of 2008 and has been won by the Congress since.
With Priyanka's potential entry into the seat, the party will now aim to further boost its presence in the region. By having both Rahul and Priyanka in the two key seats, the party aims to show the public that the Gandhi family is represented in both the north and south, strengthening their message and presence across the country, political experts suggest.
With her entry, three members of the Gandhi family will be in the Parliament, including Sonia Gandhi, who is now a Rajya Sabha MP.
