Earlier today, on the last day to file nominations for Amethi and Rae Bareli, Congress was forced to end its weeks-long suspense on who would be their party candidates for the two high-profile constituencies.
With Amethi and Rae Bareli both being the strong family hold of the Gandhi family, speculations were rife that Congress might finally field the Gandhi siblings, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi from the two seats respectively.
But it came as a surprise to many, especially the Congress supporters and online trolls when the party announced that one KL Sharma would be the Congress candidate from Amethi and Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli.
The decision was perplexing for many can be gauged from the fact that KL Sharma was himself surprised by the announcement of his name from the Amethi constituency. A video of refusing to believe he is a Congress candidate from Amethi is going viral on the internet. In Amethi, Sharma will be fighting against Union Minister Smriti Irani, who had defeated Rahul Gandhi from the same seat five years ago.
For weeks leading up to the Lok Sabha 2024 elections, deluded Congress supporters and online trolls claimed Gandhi’s return to Amethi to reclaim the constituency. But that fantasy is now shattered by the Congress party itself as it decided to field KL Sharma and not Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Rae Bareli and not Amethi might be a strategic decision by the Congress party to salvage the last remaining pocket borough of the Gandhi family. Sonia Gandhi won the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Now that Priyanka Gandhi is not in the election fray and Sonia Gandhi is already in Rajya Sabha, the Congress party had no other option but to zero in on the remaining Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, to ensure they give a tough fight in Rae Bareli.
Even arriving at this decision wasn’t easy for the Congress party. Besides the party leadership and feedback from the ground that reportedly advised the Gandhis to stay away from Amethi and Rae Bareli, the party was also under pressure from the Left’s campaign in Kerala that accused Rahul Gandhi of abandoning the Wayanad constituency should he decide to fight from Amethi. It was one of the reasons that contributed to the suspense over whether Rahul would be fighting from Amethi or not.
Now that Wayanad had already polled, the Congress party ended the suspense on the last day to file nominations for the Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies. Casting aside the negative feedback, Congress decided to field Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli, presumably in a desperate bid to save the last surviving bastion of the Gandhi family.
The continuing suspense meant the Congress party could not organise public meetings and promote their candidate. This made it incumbent upon Congress to go with one of the Gandhis and not with a lesser-known candidate, which would have meant a certain defeat. However, such is the predicament of the Congress party that even the announcement of Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli doesn’t guarantee a win.
This, in essence, means that Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Rae Bareli and not Amethi is an implicit acknowledgement from the Congress party that they are facing a rout in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections. For all its hullaballoo and aggressive social media campaigning about the INDI alliance dislodging the incumbent BJP, the Congress party is alive to the ground feedback that predicts a crushing defeat for the party in both Amethi and Rae Bareli if the Gandhi scion chooses to fight against Smriti Irani and a lesser known Congress candidate replaces Sonia Gandhi’s former Lok Sabha seat. This is why Gandhi has been fielded from Rae Bareli and a Gandhi family loyalist has been asked to take the rap in Amethi, where Smriti Irani is predicted to sweep the polls.
If Gandhis are not able to save their own family bastions, it sends a strong message to its cadres and supporters that the party might be struggling everywhere else in the country. On social media, with the help of ‘neutral’ journalists and propagandists, the Congress tried to project a false sense of belief that the INDI alliance was coming to power. But its decision concerning Rae Bareli and Amethi underscores its underlying despondency with regard to elections.
The party is so low on confidence that the selection of Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli is not a statement to its opponents but its helplessness in salvaging the decades-old Gandhi family stronghold. And if Congress is struggling to save Rae Bareli, it is anybody’s guess how would the party fare in the rest of the country. Perhaps, Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Rae Bareli not only implies an acknowledgement of defeat but it strongly endorses the BJP’s belief that ‘Abki Baar 400 paar’ is a likely possibility.
