Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress leader Kishori Lal Sharma, who will challenge Union Minister and BJP candidate Smriti Irani in Amethi, said that he is a seasoned politician of the party and "not on the payroll of the Gandhi family". Sharma further said that he will defeat Smriti Irani in the upcoming general elections.
The Congress announced its candidates on the last day of filing of nominations for Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. The polling at these two seats is scheduled to take place on May 20.
'Mai koi Naukri nahi kar raha...'
“It was the decision of the party leadership because earlier it was not finalised who will contest from here... The thing is that now I will defeat Smriti Irani. This is a big statement I am making today... 'Mai koi Naukri nahi kar raha Gandhi Parivar ki'. I am a politician. I came here in 1983 through the Youth Congress. I don't take a salary from Congress. I am a pure politician..." Sharma said.
Who is KL Sharma?
Kishori Lal Sharma, a close associate and loyalist of the Gandhi family, is originally from Punjab’s Ludhiana. He had been the manager of Sonia Gandhi in her absence on the Rae Bareli seat.
Sharma's ties with the Gandhi family deepened after the passing of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. He has been working for the Congress party for years in Amethi where he first came in 1983 and continued since then. He had played a pivotal role in Sonia Gandhi’s maiden electoral victory in 1999 on the Amethi seat.
However, after Sonia Gandhi vacated her seat for Rahul Gandhi in 2004 and moved to Rae Bareli, Sharma took charge and managed the party’s affairs on both seats – Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Amethi Lok Sabha seat
Amethi has been a stronghold of the Congress party for decades where party stalwarts like Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and top leader Rahul Gandhi contested successfully. The seat is also known as the Gandhi family bastion until being won by Smriti Irani in 2019 against Rahul Gandhi.
The Amethi seat has got a non-Gandhi family candidate for the first time in 25 years in the form of Kishori Lal Sharma. Sonia Gandhi was a candidate on the seat in 1999. After she shifted to Rae Bareli in 2004, Rahul Gandhi contested the polls from Amethi and remained an MP till 2019 until his defeat at the hands of Irani.
