NEW DELHI, Feb 5
The political corridors in Delhi are abuzz with Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha candidature from Telangana. The buzz is supported by Telangana Congress leaders’ statement that they want Sonia Gandhi to contest from the state. Congress leaders are of the view that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also contested from the Medak seat and thus Sonia, who is credited with the formation of Telangana, should contest the polls this time from the youngest state. Telangana CM Revanth Reddy has also urged Sonia Gandhi to contest from the state.
Former Congres president Rahul Gandhi has already moved to Wayanad since 2019 when he contested from two seats – Amethi and Wayanad and lost from the Hindi belt seat. It was said that the Congress was aware of the party losing ground in Amethi and thus fielded Rahul from the second seat of Wayanad in Kerala. Now, political pundits say that Congress might lose its lone Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 polls. Sonia Gandhi won the Raebareli seat in Uttar Pradesh in 2019 but as per experts, the seat does not look safe for her this time.Even Jan Ki Baat founder Pradeep Bhandari surveyed Raebareli and claimed there are 90% chance that Sonia Gandhi may lose her seat this time. The BJP is likely to field a strong candidate against Sonia Gandhi this time from the seat. The saffron party is hoping to win all the 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh riding on the Ram temple wave and the Modi Government’s social welfare initiatives like the Ujjwala scheme and free ration scheme.
Kerala has been a stronghold of the Congress party and it still commands second second-largest vote share in the state despite the Left party being in power. Congress-led UDF bagged over 33 per cent votes in the 2021 assembly election in the state. The grand old party has recently thrown out the BRS government in Telangana and has come to power in the state for the very first time since its formation in 2014. Congress currently rules two southern states – Karnataka and Telangana while it’s a junior partner of DMK in Tamil Nadu. While Telangana is still a safe bet for Congress, the party is not thinking of fielding Sonia Gandhi from Karnataka given the BJP having an upper hand there. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 25 of the 28 Parliamentary seats while the Congress had managed to win just one. Thus, while Rahul Gandhi may contest again from the Wayanad seat, if Sonia Gandhi leaves Raebareli, then Telangana would be the party’s first preference for her.
It’s also likely that Sonia Gandhi may contest from two seats this time- Raebareli in UP and one from Telangana.
In case, Sonia Gandhi shifts to the South, then Congress may field Priyanka Gandhi from the UP seat in a strategic move. While these are just reports and speculations, the real picture will get clear in the coming days as the Lok Sabha elections are just two months away.
