Rae Bareli or Wayanad? Rahul to decide on LS seat in 3-4 days: Congress
The decision, in any case, has to be taken before June 17, said Congress general secretary KC Venugopal
Having emerged victorious in both Wayanad and Rae Bareli constituencies in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will decide in “three to four days” which of the two seats he will represent in the 18th Lok Sabha, the Congress said on Saturday (June 8).
The decision, in any case, has to be taken before June 17, said Congress general secretary KC Venugopal. The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha is likely to begin around June 15.
“Of course, that decision has to be taken before 17th…it will come within three to four days,” Venugopal told reporters. The senior party leader was addressing a press conference after a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Tough choice
The former Congress chief retained Kerala's Wayanad seat, which elected him as its MP for what will be his second consecutive term, if he keeps this seat. Rahul secured 6,47,445 votes or 60% of the total votes polled, while his nearest rival, Annie Raja of the CPI, polled 2,83,023 (26% votes), according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
In Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, Rahul bagged 6,87,649 (66%) votes while his nearest rival Dinesh Pratap Singh of the BJP polled 2,97,619 (29%) votes. Rahul contested from Rae Bareli after his mother and five-time MP Sonia Gandhi vacated the seat and took the Rajya Sabha route to Parliament in February citing health reasons.
In the 2019 general elections, Rahul Gandhi contested from UP’s Amethi as well as Wayanad, but he ended up losing to BJP’s Smriti Irani in Amethi from where he had won three consecutive elections in 2004, 2009 and 2014. He had represented Wayanad from 2019 to 2024, except for a brief period when he was disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case.