New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday kept the suspense alive on the party candidates for the crucial Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.
"You have to wait for a few more days ... when the names of candidates come from people to me and I sign the notification, it will be announced," he said addressing a press conference in Assam's Guwahati amid wild speculation in the media every day.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Amethi, a seat which he lost to BJP leader Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Wayanad MP took over the family's political stronghold in Amethi in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009 as well as 2014. However, Irani defeated him with a margin of over 55,000 votes in the last elections.
The Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat was vacated by Sonia Gandhi following her Rajya Sabha nomination. The constituency has been a Congress bastion since 1960 with both Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi having represented it. The Congress may field Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli.
Both Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20. Uttar Pradesh is voting in all the seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections from April 19 to June 1.
The Congress has so far announced candidates for 317 Lok Sabha seats but its choices for Amethi and Rae Bareli will be keenly watched since the two seats have been party bastions for decades.
