Congress continues silence on its Amethi, Rae Bareli candidates

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday yet again dithered on announcing the party’s candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Rae Bareli and Amethi, despite the fact that the last day for filing nominations ends on Friday.

Thursday started with speculation that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest from Amethi and Rae Bareli, respectively. During the course of the day, other names started cropping up. The names of party secretary K.L. Sharma from Amethi and Supriya Shrinate from Rae Bareli started doing the rounds.

Earlier, the central election committee (CEC) of the Congress had authorised Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to decide the candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli. Insiders claim that Mr Kharge wants somebody from the Gandhi family to contest these two seats.

Ms Vadra had said that she is busy campaigning across the country and does not want to be tied down to any particular seat, while Mr Gandhi is still undecided.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the BJP announced former Congress MLA and present BJP leader Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate in Rae Bareli. Union minister Smriti Irani has already filed her nomination from Amethi on Monday.

Ms Irani defeated Mr Gandhi from Amethi in 2019. Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was the lone Congress candidate to have won the Lok Sabha seat from UP in the last general election.

The Congress has been delaying the decision on candidates for the two seats for weeks. But now, the time has almost run out. Many in the Congress claim that the announcement will be made on the last day of filing the nomination papers, which is a Friday.