Rae Bareli and Amethi | The journey from Gandhi bastion to BJP turf

The Nehru-Gandhi family is in the fear of losing its last bastion — Rae Bareli — to the BJP after already losing Amethi to the ruling party in 2019. Here’s a look at the Gandhi family’s history with the two constituencies.

With just a week left for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress still remains undecided on its candidates for Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli and Amethi — seats traditionally fought by the Nehru-Gandhi family. Both seats will go to polls in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20. Results will be declared on June 4.

Congress, which heads the Opposition coalition – INDIA – has agreed to contest 17 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP) – one of the key states deciding the outcome of the elections. Its alliance partner – Samajwadi Party (SP) - will contest the remaining 63 seats. As of date, SP has released the names of 20 candidates. Congress has released 15 names, leaving the question of Amethi and Rae Bareli for the Gandhi family to decide, withUP unit even passing a resolution to its effect.

Both ex-Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi seem unlikely to contest from either seat, with Ms. Gandhi already being nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Her son, Rahul Gandhi, has already filed nomination from his Kerala constituency, Wayanad, but has not revealed any plans to contest from his old bastion – Amethi. However Mr. Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra has expressed a wish contest to contest from Amethi while posters demanding Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s candidacy from Rae Bareli have appeared across the constituency. May 3 is the last date for filing nominations to both seats.

Here’s a look at both Gandhi bastions:

Created in 1967, the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency cover four State constituencies — Amethi, Tili, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj, and Tiloi. Home to 18.67 lakh citizens, as per the 2011 Census, major towns like Musafirkhana, Amethi, Salon, Tiloi, Gauriganj, Jagdishpur fall under this constituency. Demographically, 25% of Amethi’s population belong to the Scheduled Castes, while a small fragment (0.01%) belongs to the Scheduled Tribes. The total literacy rate is 69.7%. Bordering Amethi are constituencies like Faizabad, Barabanki, Rae Bareli, and Pratapgarh.

Since its inception to 2019, Congress has almost always won in Amethi— barring two instances. In the 1977 elections the Janata Party’s Ravindra Pratap Singh trounced Gandhi scion Sanjay Gandhi, who was facing ire due to actions during the Indira Gandhi-imposed Emergency, and in 1998, BJP’s Satish Sharma defeated incumbent Congress MP Satish Sharma. The Gandhis who have represented Amethi are Sanjay Gandhi (1980), Rajiv Gandhi (1981,1984, 1989, 1991), Sonia Gandhi (1998), Rahul Gandhi (2004, 2009, 2014).

Sanjay Gandhi (1980)