Rahul Gandhi files nominations for Rae Bareli: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday filed his nominations from the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress after much deliberations fielded Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat and Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli, the constituency held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades. The seat was also held by his grandmother Indira Gandhi and his grandfather Feroze Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and brother-in-law Robert Vadra have arrived at the Fursatganj Airport in Amethi ahead of the nomination filing. They were accompanied by former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was in Rae Bareli for the nomination filing besides a large number of party workers and leaders. The two seats will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth of the seven-phase general election.
Posters with pictures of Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were brought Thursday evening to the Congress office in Gauriganj, in Amethi district.
Smriti Irani mocks
Union minister and Amethi MP, who has already filed her nomination papers from that constituency again, mocked the Gandhis for not fielding any family member against her. "The Gandhi family not being present in the election fray in Amethi indicates that the Congress has accepted its defeat in Amethi even before the polling on the seat," BJP leader Smriti Irani said.
