NEW DELHI: AICC leader said, ‘It is not like he escaped from Amethi, he had to choose one seat between Rae Bareli and Amethi so he chose Rae Bareli because of its importance.’
With the declaration of a non-Gandhi candidate on the grand old party’s bastion Lok Sabha seat Amethi, political observers believe that the seat would cease to be the party’s stronghold if the candidate, KL Sharma, does not perform well or score a victory.
Reasoning Rahul’s switch from Amethi to Rae Bareli, an AICC leader said, “It is not like he escaped from Amethi, he had to choose one seat between Rae Bareli and Amethi so he chose Rae Bareli because of its importance. As the seat was held by his mother Sonia Gandhi up until now and as a symbol of inheritance Rahul is given the seat to contest.
Moreover, if Rahul Gandhi would have contested Amethi, he would certainly have won it.”
The other reason, according to sources in UP, for not contesting Amethi was the BJP’s candidate Smriti Irani. Internal sources said that Congress leadership believed Irani could have spoken helter skelter about Rahul Gandhi and Congress had he contested from there, demanding more attention to the seat from Rahul.
Due to which the plans of the Gandhi scion could have faced disturbances which could have led to the loss of focus. A source said, “Rahul Gandhi has to be present in so many places, he has to take care of so many campaigns. He is the ace card of Congress, if his mind gets disturbed, it could impact the overall performance of the party.”
Word is, if Rahul Gandhi wins both the seats, Rae Bareli and Wayanad, he might eventually give up Wayanad and allow his sister Priyanka Gandhi to make a poll debut on the Kerala seat. A party leader said, “Priyanka Gandhi may be busy with compagn trials for now, but when the elections are over she can take over Wayanad from Rahul Gandhi in the subsequent bypoll.”
In about three decades, Sharma is only the second non-Gandhi Congress candidate to fight from Amethi held by at least four Gandhi family members at different times. The last non-Gandhi candidate from this seat was Satish Sharma, who won it twice after it had fallen vacant following the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Later, he tasted defeat in the 1998 election.
According to three political analysts in the state, if Rahul Gandhi would have chosen to contest Amethi Lok Sabha seat he would have won it.
A political analyst further added, “There was already an understanding that if Gandhis contest both the seats, they will win both the seats. But since only one Gandhi had to contest, the other seat which is also seen as Congress bastion may not be a potential seat for Congress anymore.”
A political analyst close to KL Sharma said that Sharma has been looking after the two constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli since two decades, therefore he knows the in and out of the bastion constituencies.
He added, “It won’t be that easy for Irani, Sharma is not a weak contestant at all.”
However the other assessments conducted by the party before the ongoing elections had suggested that only if a member of the Gandhi family contests the election on Amethi, the party will have high chance of winning.