New Delhi: A day after filing nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday informed voters of her Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh about her decision to not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls due to health and age issues.
The 77-year-old Congress leader also threw subtle hints of a possible entry of a member of her family from Rae Bareli segment, which she represented since 2004.
Reminiscing over the warm reception she received from the people when she visited Rae Bareli after losing Rajiv Gandhi (her husband) and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (mother-in-law), she wrote: “Roots of our family in Rae Bareli are very deep. I know you will stand by me and my family in future just as in the past. I am proud to say that whatever I am today, I am because of you and I have always done my best to honour your trust. Now on account of health and age issues, I will not contest the next Lok Sabha election.”
In the emotional message in Hindi, she further said that though she would not be able to serve them directly, her “heart and soul will always remain” with them.
There is widespread speculation that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli.
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala took a swipe at the Congress, questioning the party’s future “association” with Uttar Pradesh while suggesting that the Congress was apprehensive about losing Rae Bareli. “One thing is clear with this nomination that the Gandhi family will no longer formally have any association with Uttar Pradesh…Uttar Pradesh nurtured the family politically. First, they lost Amethi and now they have come to know that perhaps they are going to lose the seat in Raebareli also,” he said.
It is worth mentioning here that Amethi and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh were traditionally strongholds of the Congress. In 2019, Rae Bareli was the only seat won by Congress in Uttar Pradesh as Rahul Gandhi lost Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani.
