Rahul Gandhi filed nomination from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat on Friday. This was the last date for filing nominations from this seat. At the last minute, the Congress decided to field Rahul from this seat. Rahul had earlier fought from Amati. Whereas, KL Sharma got the ticket from Amati. This issue was discussed in ‘Hebron Ka Khildi’ this week. Senior journalists Ramkripal Singh, Sameer Chaugaonkar, Vinod Agnihotri, Avadhesh Kumar, Purnima Tripathi and Anurag Verma were present in the discussion.
Ramkripal Singh: Rae Bareli and Amethi have links with the Nehru-Gandhi family, but that does not mean that winning these seats will rejuvenate the Congress. In 2014, both seats were won by the Congress. Even after that, everyone knows what happened to the party. Whether it is a family, an organization, a party or a company, if you start to attach importance to a certain person then the organization, party or institution starts to collapse. If both Rahul and Priyanka contested the elections, it would be said that the whole family is working to become MPs. It doesn’t matter whether Rahul is fighting from Amati or from Barli. It is not correct to say that Rahul ran away from Amati.
Purnima Tripathi: It could be the strategy of the Congress that the name was announced at the last moment. It is also possible that there was turmoil within the party. These are things within the party, we cannot confirm it. However, Rahul’s contest from Rae Bareli will definitely boost the morale of Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav also went to Kanauj at the last moment and submitted his candidacy.
Question- Is Rahul’s decision correct?
Abdesh Kumar: Is Ra Brali really such a seat for a family for which one should leave Ameti? If seen from a family point of view, if Sanjay Gandhi will contest from a real seat. After him, Rajiv Gandhi fought away. Sonia Gandhi then had to face Amati in 1999. After Rahul Gandhi lost from Amati, how many times did Rahul go there? How will he go to the seat you didn’t go to after you lost?
Anurag Verma: A national leader kept such a secret for so long and what happened? This is a strategic loss for the Congress. Until the last election, the claims he made in Congress were two seats, real and bad. Now, in the future he will only have a claim on one mandate, Re Barley. The way Rahul Gandhi left Amthi shows his arrogance. It will not be so easy for Rahul to win in Rae Bareli. The voting pattern of Rae Bareli seat has changed a lot since 2014.
Sameer Chougaonkar: The Congress would like someone from the Gandhi family to contest from Amati or Ray Barley. Akhilesh Yadav wanted Priyanka to fight. However, he did not say much about Rahul. I think if Rahul was fighting from Wayanad, he should have fielded Priyanka Marai in Raleigh. Whether Rahul fights from Amati or Marai in Raleigh is his decision. The leader always wants to fight from a safe seat. Leaders keep changing their chair, no big deal. There are many such examples from Sushma Swaraj, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani to Arun Jaitley.
Vinod Agnihotri: In 1996, Atal Bihari Vajpayee contested the elections from Lucknow. Suddenly the Samajwadi Party announced Raj Babbar as its candidate. After that, Atal ji applied from Gandhinagar. I think the day Sonia Gandhi left Rae Bareli, it was decided that Rahul Gandhi would contest the elections from Rae Bareli.
As of today, the Congress is using Priyanka in all the seats where the party is fighting. She travels all over the country. If they made her a real candidate, she would be stuck there because Smriti Irani is not a weak candidate. There could not have been a better non-Gandhi candidate than Kishore Lal Sharma. He has been making congressional candidates face off for the last 40 years.
