Rae Bareli (UP), June 4 (UNI) Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday retained the party’s traditional seat Rae Bareli by defeating his nearest rival and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Rahul defeated Singh by a huge margin of 3,90,030 votes. According to the data of the Election Commission Rahul received 6,87,649 votes as compared to the minister in the Yogi government Dinesh Pratap who got 2,97,619 votes.
In 2019 Lok Sabha elections Dinesh Pratap also contested against Sonia Gandhi but lost by a margin of more than 1.67 lakh votes.
It may be noted that Rahul, who is MP from Waynad, decided to contest from Rae Bareli after his mother and sitting MP Sonia Gandhi was elected to the Rajya Sabha. It is believed that the party decided to field him from Rae Bareli on the persuasion of the party workers.
Rahul’s massive victory goes to extensive campaigning by his sister and Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who extensively campaigned in Rae Bareli. Besides, Sonia Gandhi also made an emotional appeal to the voters before the election and during campaigning
It may be mentioned that barring thrice, Congress has never lost this seat since 1952. Other than Rahul’s grandfather Feroze Gandhi, this seat has also been represented by his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. His mother Sonia Gandhi has represented the seat since 2004.
