Priyanka a no-show, Rahul files papers from Rae Bareli

Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of Gandhi family, tasked to recapture Amethi

RAE BARELI/NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filed his papers from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli constituency on Friday, barely an hour before nominations closed for the Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier, in the morning, the Congress ended the suspense over Amethi and Rae Bareli, announcing his candidature from the seat held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades. She recently moved to the Rajya Sabha.

Gandhi had lost from the adjoining Amethi constituency to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019, but won from Wayanad in Kerala – a seat he is contesting this time as well. The former Congress president was accompanied by party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as he handed over his papers to district election officer Harshita Mathur around 2 pm on the last day for filing nominations.

Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra too was with him. Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot accompanied the family. Also on Friday, Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, filed his papers from the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency.

Polling in both parliamentary constituencies is on May 20.

After filing his nomination, Rahul Gandhi and other family members went to the district Congress office where family priest Radhe Shyam Dixit performed a puja.

The BJP mocked the Congress decision to field Gandhi from Rae Bareli rather than Amethi. “Bhag Rahul bhag, Rahul bhag, Rahul bhag (run Rahul, run) -- this is what will go on now,” BJP general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam told reporters in Delhi.

BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh filed papers from Rae Bareli on Friday. He had lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2019.