VARUN GANDHI TURNED DOWN BJP'S OFFER TO CONTEST RAEBARELI SEAT: SOURCES
BJP MP Varun Gandhi has opted out of a possible poll contest against his cousin Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat, sources told India Today TV on Thursday. The BJP was keen to field Varun Gandhi from Raebareli, which has been a Congress stronghold since 2004, added the sources.Â
Congress sources on Wednesday suggested that there is a strong possibility that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could contest from the seat. Her mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi held the Raebareli seat since 2004 before she was elected to the Rajya Sabha in February this year.
Speculations about Congress fielding Priyanka Gandhi from Raebareli heated up after Sonia Gandhi announced she would not contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.Â
Amid such speculations, the BJP approached Varun Gandhi to contest against his cousin, but he opted out of the Raebareli poll battle, said sources.Â
Varun Gandhi wants to stay away from the kind of spotlight that a 'Gandhi vs Gandhi' contest would attract, said sources close to the BJP leader.Â
Varun Gandhi is the sitting MP from Pilibhit. For the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP decided to drop him from Pilibhit poll and fielded former minister Jitin Prasada on the seat.Â
Afterwards, Varun Gandhi wrote an open letter to the people of Pilibhit saying he would continue to be a son of the land. His mother, Maneka Gandhi, a long-time Parliamentarian, was fielded by the BJP again from the Sultanpur seat in Uttar Pradesh.Â
The BJP reportedly conducted several surveys and polls to see who would pose a stiff challenge to the Gandhis in Raebareli.
The seat has remained a Congress bastion, even before Sonia Gandhi started representing it in 2004. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was sent to the Lok Sabha multiple times from 1967 to 1984 after winning the Raebareli seat.Â
Other members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, including Arun Nehru and Sheila Kaul, had also won the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat.
While BJP's Smriti Irani wrested away control of another Gandhi stronghold, Amethi, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party has been unable to capture Raebareli ever since the NDA came to power.Â
However, Sonia Gandhi's vote share has been falling since 2014 when compared to the previous elections. In 2014, there was an 8.43 per cent dip in the vote share compared to the 2009 results, and in 2019, it dropped a further 8 per cent.
This has got the BJP emboldened, and the party has been trying to dent the Congress organisation on the ground in Raebareli for a while, starting with the defection of Raebareli Sadar MLA Aditi Singh. She joined the BJP after leaving Congress in 2021. She retained her seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Â
Meanwhile, sources in Congress said the party will not make any formal announcement on the candidates for Raebareli and Amethi before April 30. The party is waiting for the second phase of polling on April 26 to get over. The people of Wayanad will vote to choose their MP on April 26 and Rahul Gandhi is the Congress candidate from the Kerala seat.Â
Nominations for Amethi and Raebareli are also set to open on the same day, April 26.
2024-04-25T12:18:41Z dg43tfdfdgfd