‘Decision in three-four days’: Congress on Rahul Gandhi's 'Rae Bareli or Wayanad' dilemma
The ex-Congress chief won both of his seats in the recently-held Lok Sabha polls. Gandhi must now decide which one he will represent in the 18th Lok Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi, who won both the Wayanad and Rae Bareli constituencies in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, will decide in “three to four days” which of the two seats he will represent in the upcoming 18th Lok Sabha, the Congress said on Saturday.
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The decision, in any case, has to be taken before June 17, senior party leader KC Venugopal said. The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha is likely to begin around June 15.
“Of course, that decision has to be taken before 17th…it will come within three to four days,” Venugopal told reporters. The Congress general secretary was addressing a press conference after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Gandhi, a former chief of the grand old party, retained Kerala's Wayanad seat, which elected him as it Member of Parliament (MP) for what will be his second consecutive term, if he keeps this seat. He secured 647,445 votes or 60% of the total votes polled, while his runner-up, Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI), polled 283,023 (26% votes), according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
In Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli segment, on the other hand, he bagged 687,649 (66%) votes, while Dinesh Pratap Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came second with 297,619 (29%) votes, ECI data shows. Gandhi contested from here after his mother and former Congress president, 5-time Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi, vacated the seat and moved to Rajya Sabha in February due to health issues.
A person contesting a Lok Sabha or assembly (state) election in India, can stand from a maximum of two seats. If they win both, they must leave one; a by-election is conducted to fill the resulting vacancy.
In the 2019 general elections, Rahul Gandhi stood from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi – he won it in 2004, 2009, and 2014 – as well as Wayanad. He lost to BJP's Smriti Irani in Amethi but was victorious in Wayanad.