Rahul Gandhi’s Candidacy Uncertain as Smriti Irani Prepares for Lok Sabha Polls

Residents of Amethi Lok Sabha constituency are restlessly waiting for May 3 — the last date of filing nominations for the forthcoming Lok Sabha election with polling scheduled on May 20. Their eagerness is about whether Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will file his papers from here or not — especially since Rahul filed his nomination from Wayanad in faraway Kerala on April 3, where polling is scheduled on April 26.The significance of the fact that Rahul has not let go of the Wayanad option is not lost on the people of Amethi. After all, in 2019 they had handed a smarting defeat to him, choosing the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Smriti Irani instead as their representative. Still, some people believed that this time he will contest only from Amethi and win the seat to uphold the traditional stronghold of his party. But apparently Rahul’s trust in Wayanad remains strong.Amethi: 20 lakh people, of whom 11 lakh voted in 2019The constituency, which covers the entire Amethi district, has a population of about 20 lakh people, of whom about 55 per cent had voted in the last Lok Sabha election, and Rahul had lost by a margin of about 55,000 votes. Smriti Irani had emerged as a giant-killer after having lost the previous (2014) election to Rahul by more than 1 lakh votes. This time, however, the campaign is distinctly one-sided at the moment with no inkling of the Congress taking a decisive step. Despite the repetitive kite-flying in local media and among party workers that Rahul will contest from here –- and Priyanka Vadra from neighbouring Rae Bareli –- there has been no official Congress announcement yet. Even when Rahul completed the formalities in Wayanad and led a roadshow, there was no answer (since no question was raised) about whether he will file papers from Amethi too.



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