The Congress party informed the Election Commission of India (ECI) that its leader Rahul Gandhi was given a total of ₹1.40 crore to contest the Lok Sabha election 2024 from two seats - Wayanad and Raebareli. Gandhi was given Rs 70 lakh each for contesting the general elections from Wayanad and Raebareli, the party said.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi won from both Wayanad and Raebareli seats. However, he retained his Raebareli and gave up Wayanad, in a way facilitating his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra political debut. Bypolls will be conducted in Wayanad soon, and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the party's candidate.
Interestingly, despite being Congress' star campaigner for the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi was not the party leader who got the highest amount to contest the polls. The only Congress candidate who got higher amount than Rahul Gandhi was Vikramaditya Singh, who was given ₹87 lakh from the party fund.
Other leaders to get ₹70 lakh included Kishori Lal Sharma, who defeated BJP's sitting MP Smriti Irani, K C Venugopal (Alappuzha in Kerala) and Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu). Radhakrishna and Vijay Inder Singla — Congress candidates from Gulbarga in Karnataka and Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, respectively — also got ₹70 lakh each.
