Election 2024: Congress likely to decide on Amethi and Raebareli candidates on Saturday
New Delhi: The Central Election Committee of the Congress will convene on Saturday, likely to finalise the candidate for the party strongholds of Amethi and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, a media report said.
This meeting comes amid demands from party members to field former party president Rahul Gandhi for Amethi and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for the Raebareli constituency, India Today TV reported.
While Rahul Gandhi is already contesting from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala, Priyanka Gandhi has yet to make her electoral debut.
The Uttar Pradesh unit's state election committee of the Congress has put forth the names of Rahul Gandhi for Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi for Raebareli, said the report by India Today TV.
These seats were also deliberated upon in the previous Central Election Committee meeting, but the final decision about their contesting for the seats was left to the Gandhi family.
Rahul Gandhi, who represented the Amethi Lok Sabha seat for 15 years until 2019, faced defeat by BJP's Smriti Irani in the last election.
Irani, now a Union Minister, has challenged Rahul Gandhi repeatedly to contest from Amethi again.
In Raebareli, there's a growing demand for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to run for the seat after her mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi vacated it following her Rajya Sabha nomination.
The Lok Sabha elections for Amethi and Raebareli are slated for the fifth phase on May 20.