New Delhi: Putting an end to speculation that she would quit active politics, the Congress Central Election Committee on Thursday announced that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha election from Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress first list also confirmed that party president Rahul Gandhi will once again be fielded from Amethi. There was no mention of newest Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi in the list of candidates released for the Lok Sabha elections.
On February 19, News18 had reported that a group of seniors, representing the party old guard, requested Sonia Gandhi to contest from Rae Bareli.
Sonia Gandhi is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli, but there were several reports that she would not contest again and make way for her daughter Priyanka, who was given the charge of the Congress' poll campaign in eastern UP in January.
There had been a number of reports that Sonia would retire from active politics due to to her ill-health over the last few years. Her public appearances have reduced drastically over the years. Her last election rally was in Hyderabad before the assembly election in Telangana in December.
She has held the Rae Bareli seat without interruption since 2004, and which, alongside Amethi, has traditionally been the Gandhi family bastions.
The forthcoming Lok Sabha election has been billed as the biggest test for Rahul Gandhi, whose political fortunes have been on an upswing as was seen in the assembly elections to five states in December last year. The Congress wrested three Hindi heartland states from the BJP in the elections.
The Congress Working Committee, has in all, announced 15 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections - 11 from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat. The list was released after the CWC met for an hour and a half.
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