Congress to hold meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee to decide the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls…reports Asian Lite News
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will likely make her electoral debut from the party’s Uttar Pradesh stronghold of Raebareli – a seat won thrice by ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi – sources said.
Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, may return to the Congress’ other UP stronghold – Amethi – which he lost in a shock defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Smriti Irani in 2019. Gandhi will also fight from his current seat of Wayanad in Kerala; victory here had allowed him to retain his Lok Sabha status after the last election.
There has always been a ‘will she, won’t she’ air about Ms Gandhi Vadra and elections. Before 2019 she set tongues wagging after quipping “why not”, when asked if she would contest from Varanasi – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bastion.
Her entry now comes after her mother, ex-party boss Sonia Gandhi – said she would not seek re-election from Raebareli, a seat she has won five times in the past, including in 2019.
In that election she was the sole Congress leader to win a UP Lok Sabha seat. Gandhi’s Lok Sabha-to-Rajya Sabha shift – she has been elected from Rajasthan – was supposed to signal a shift in party leadership before the general election.
As she did so, she made an emotional appeal to Raebareli’s voters, which has been won by a member of the Gandhi family in all but three general elections since independence.
After the Congress confirmed Sonia Gandhi’s withdrawal from Raebareli, there was speculation Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would finally contest an election.
There were even posters in Raebareli this week urging the Congress to name Ms Gandhi Vadra as its candidate for the prestigious seat. “Take Congress’ development work forward, Raebareli is calling… Priyanka Gandhiji, please come,” the posters said. The Congress has now responded to that call.
In 2019, Smriti Irani beat Rahul Gandhi by 55,000-odd votes for one of the biggest upsets of the election. The BJP has allowed her to defend the seat and, last week, she challenged Mr Gandhi.
“In 2019 he left Amethi. Today Amethi has left him. If he is confident then, without going to Wayanad… let him fight from Amethi,” she told NDTV, as Mr Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ entered the constituency. “Empty roads tell us what people feel about Rahul Gandhi.”
The BJP has not yet announced its Raebareli candidate; in 2019 the party fielded Dinesh Pratap Singh, who slumped to defeat by over 1.8 lakh votes in the constituency.
The party has, however, confirmed that Ms Irani will defend her Amethi seat, setting up the first of two blockbuster contests in the politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh.
Congress CEC to meet today
Congress will hold a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee on Thursday to decide the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is the chairperson of the committee and its members include former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
“The first meeting of @INCIndia Central Election Committee(CEC) that considers and decides on candidates for Lok Sabha polls is being held at 6 pm on March 7th,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet.
The Congress panel tasked with preparing the party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls has prepared the draft which will now be discussed by the Congress Working Committee.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who heads the manifesto committee, said on Tuesday that the draft report will be presented to the Congress president.
“We have prepared the draft manifesto. Now it will go to the Congress Working Committee. They will finalize the manifesto then it will become the Congress party document. Tomorrow we will hand over this draft to the Congress President,” he said.
The Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in April-May this year.
‘Caste census is an X-ray for India’
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi has said that an X-ray is conducted when a hand bone is broken and similarly, the caste census is an X-ray for India. The Congress leader made the remark while addressing a public gathering during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Ratlam district in the state on Wednesday.
“Firstly, we will have to get an X-ray done for India. An X-ray is conducted when a hand bone is broken. Similarly, the caste census is an X-ray for India,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Earlier, Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh also said that conducting a socio-economic caste census is one of the two guarantees announced by the Congress party.
“Rahul Gandhi is continuously speaking about nyaya (justice) which is Nari Nyay, Yuva Nyay, Kisan Nyay, Shramik Nyay, and Hissedari Nyay. Till now Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Kharge have talked about two guarantees associated with Kisan Nyay and Hissedari Nyay. First, passing a law granting legal status to MSP in Parliament for farmers and the MSP will be based on the formula suggested by M S Swaminathan. Second, conducting a socio-economic caste census, which will be an important step for social empowerment and economic justice,” Ramesh said. (ANI)
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