The newly-appointed Uttar Pradesh unit chief of the Congress, Ajay Rai, said on Friday that the party's Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
In the 2019 general elections, Smriti Irani dealt a heavy blow to Gandhi when she defeated him by a margin of over 50,000 votes. The Congress leader had contested from Amethi and Wayanad then.
On Irani's remark that Gandhi will not return to Amethi, which was once the Gandhi family pocket-borough, Rai said the BJP leader had failed to keep her promise of making sugar available at ₹13 per kilo. "She must answer to the public where did that sugar go," he added.
If Gandhi decides to contest from Amethi, he will once again face Irani who had dared him to come back to fight against her. “Heard you (Rahul Gandhi) have announced to contest from Amethi in 2024 from one of your provincial leaders in an indecent manner. So, should I take it as certain that you would contest from Amethi? Won’t run away to another seat? Won’t get scared?," she had said in a tweet in December.
Rai said Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi can contest from wherever she likes, when asked if she would be contesting from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.
Rai had contested from Varanasi in 2019 and 2014 against Narendra Modi and lost. There were speculations that Priyanka Gandhi would be contesting from Varanasi against Modi in 2019.
