New Delhi:
The Congress is all set to end the tension over Lok Sabha candidates for the prestigious Amethi and Raebareli constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
The party's Central Election Commission (CEC) has given Congress president Mallikalrujun Kharge the authority to take a decision which will be announced within 24 hours, party leader Jairam Ramesh said.
“No one is afraid, no one is running away,” he said.
The Congress has kept the tension high for Amethi and Raebareli constituencies by not naming candidates for them in the latest list of names for the Lok Sabha polls released on Tuesday.
Congress workers in Amethi yesterday staged a protest against the delay in the announcement.
Slogans of “Amethi mange Gandhi parivar (Amethi demands the Gandhi family)” were raised by Congress workers who took part in a protest outside the party office.
Speculation is rife that the party would once again oust its former president Rahul Gandhi – who lost the family bastion in a shock defeat to the BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019 – from Amethi and that he would contest from there as well as Kerala's Wayanad as he did in the 2019 elections. last lok sabha elections.
For Raebareli, which had been held by Sonia Gandhi since 2004, the name was doing the rounds of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whose election debut is expected to excite party workers.
Elections for both seats are scheduled for May 20, the fifth phase.
The Congress will contest 17 of UP's 80 Lok Sabha seats, while the remaining 63 will go to INDIA bloc ally Samajwadi Party and regional outfits.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Smriti Irani has submitted her nomination by Amethi, expressing confidence about a second consecutive term. Asked whether she would prefer Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as an opponent, she told NDTV, “I don't care. Whoever comes will lose”.