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Will Rae Bareli Be A Cakewalk For Sonia Gandhi?

She is pitted against Dinesh Pratap Singh, who recently joined the BJP after leaving the Congress.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is seeking a re-election from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat for the fifth time and is pitted against a former Congress leader.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Dinesh Pratap Singh, who recently joined the BJP after leaving the Congress, from the constituency.

Rae Bareli is a Congress stronghold and Gandhi won the seat in 2004, 2006 (bypolls), 2009 and 2014. The Congress has won the seat 19 times, including three bye-elections. The seat has also been represented by Firoze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Arun Nehru, Sheila Kaul and Capt Satish Sharma in the past.

Rae Bareli will vote on 6 May in the fifth phase of 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

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In 2014, the constituency recorded a poll percentage 51.73%, with Sonia Gandhi getting 5,26,434 votes against her nearest rival Ajay Agrawal of the BJP.

There were earlier speculations that Gandhi will retire from politics and make way for her daughter and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Before filing her nomination papers on 11 April, Gandhi had embarked on a roadshow and offered puja at the Congress’ central office in Rae Bareli.

Gandhi has been attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government in her speeches and rallies. On Thursday, while addressing a rally in Rae Bareli, she reminded people of the promises made by Modi regarding two crore jobs and Rs 15 lakh to every individual, according to The Indian Express.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.