Congress workers want Rahul Gandhi to contest from Amethi in 2024 Lok Sabha polls: UP party chief Ajay Rai

People of Amethi want Rahul Gandhi to contest 2024 polls; Congress-SP alliance to defeat BJP-led NDA; UP Cong. Chief Ajay Rai says workers, public want to rectify mistake of 2019. INDIA alliance will uproot NDA

The people of Amethi want to rectify their "mistake" of 2019 and Congress workers as well as leaders are demanding that Rahul Gandhi contest from the constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party's Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai said.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had contested the 2019 general elections from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala. He lost Amethi to BJP leader Smriti Irani.

The seat was won by him in 2004, 2009 and 2014, and was considered a Congress bastion. Sonia Gandhi had won from Amethi in 1999. Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had also represented the constituency in Lok Sabha. On the recently formed opposition grouping Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), in which the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress are partners, he asserted that the alliance formed for the parliamentary elections will be successful in Uttar Pradesh in defeating the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Mr. Rai added that the Congress-SP tie-up for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls should not be equated with the alliance of opposition parties for the 2024 elections.

In 2017, the Congress had won seven seats and the SP 47 in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly. In 2022, the Congress had won just two seats. The party has one member in Lok Sabha (Rae Bareli MP Sonia Gandhi) from the politically crucial State that sends 80 MPs to the 543-member Lower House of Parliament.

"The party (Congress) workers and leaders are demanding that Rahul Gandhi contest from the Amethi parliamentary constituency, and the public want to rectify the mistake committed by them, and work with full strength to make him the Lok Sabha MP from Amethi," Mr. Rai told PTI in a telephonic interview.

The people of Amethi "feel that they were cheated and misguided", the Uttar Pradesh Congress president said hitting out at the BJP which is in power both in the state and at the Centre. Asked if the Congress will again field Sonia Gandhi from the Rae Bareli seat in 2024 or consider her daughter and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its candidate, Mr. Rai said, "They (apparently referring to the party leadership) have to decide this." Every party worker will deliver their best to ensure that the Congress wins Rae Bareli, he said.