Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will run for the Lok Sabha in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in 2024, the party’s newly elected president, Ajay Rai, announced on Friday.
This choice sets the scenario for a big election contest because Rahul Gandhi’s candidacy pits him against Smriti Irani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a Union minister.
Notably, Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, once a Congress stronghold, by a margin of around 55,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Amethi Lok Sabha constituency was once a Gandhi family pocket-borough, from where Rahul Gandhi had been contesting elections since 2004, when his mother Sonia Gandhi vacated the seat for him.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi ran in the Wayanad and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies. After losing to Smriti Irani in Amethi, he later became the MP for Wayanad.
