‘Gandhi family member will win Rae Bareli, Amethi comfortably’

NEW DELHI: According to party sources, a team of the party’s strategist Sunil Kanugolu carried out an internal survey a month ago in Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Even as the Congress is yet to announce the names of party candidates for the prestigious Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seats, the party’s internal survey shows that any Gandhi family members contesting from these two seats will get a clear mandate, the party sources said.

According to party sources, a team of the party’s strategist Sunil Kanugolu carried out an internal survey a month ago in Rae Bareli and Amethi.

“And as per the survey, any family members of Gandhi family contesting from these two seats will win comfortably,” the source claimed. A source close to the party also said that the shutting of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital for sometime has also gone against BJP’s Smriti Irani in Amethi. It is a charitable hospital and it deals with maximum patient in the district and its closure even for a brief period resulted in troubled people of the Lok Sabha constituency.

The source also said that the guest house in Amethi and Rae Bareli are also getting renovated. It implies the arrival of the Gandhi family in these towns. However, another source said that the renovation and painting of the guest house in Rae Bareli and Amethi are routine process.

Amethi and Rae Bareli remained a strong bastion of Congress. However, in 2019 Lok Sabha elections Rahul Gandhi lost to Irani by a margin of over 50,000 votes.

The seat of Rae Bareli has been a family bastion. Feroze Gandhi, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had represented this seat in the Parliament while Amethi was represented by Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi earlier.

Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi this year went to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan ending her over 25 years of political career in Lok Sabha. There are strong rumors that in absence of Sonia Gandhi, her daughter and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might contest from the seat, while Rahul Gandhi may return to Amethi to contest against Irani, who is also a union minister. Rahul Gandhi recently addressed a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh. Responding to a question whether he will contest either from Amethi or Rae Bareli, Rahul Gandhi said, “Whatever instructions I will get, I will follow it. In our party, all these (selections of candidates) decisions are taken by the CEC.”

The Congress unit in Uttar Pradesh had earlier also requested the Gandhi family members to contest from these two seats. The Congress has also not named any candidates till date from these seats and has maintained the silence.

But party sources said that a decision on two seats will be taken after the polling for second phase will get over in Kerala’s Wayanad on April 26, which is represented by Rahul Gandhi