Lucknow: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi might have, by opting out of an electoral contest in his former stronghold of Amethi, and shifting to the neighbouring Raebareli Lok Sabha seat, made things easy for union minister Smriti Irani, the BJP nominee from there but the party leaders here said that the decision was part of a ''well thought out strategy'.
A senior UP Congress leader here said that Raebareli was a 'safer' seat for Rahul in comparison to Amethi from where he had lost to Smriti Irani in 2019 LS polls by around 55 thousand votes.
''In comparison to Amethi, Raebareli is still a safer seat for the Gandhi family....the electorate of the constituency are emotionally attached with the family,'' the leader told DH here on Saturday.
"Besides, the Congress organisation is also quite strong...we have workers at the booth level... in Amethi, the organisation is in disarray... Rahulji's defeat in 2019 LS polls only added to the organisational deficiencies," he added.
The leader also said that Rahul could still campaign for the party in the country in the ongoing LS polls as the local leadership in Raebareli was capable of managing the election and also reaching out to the electorate. ''BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh, who lost to Sonia Gandhi in 2019 LS polls by more than 1.5 lakh votes, is no match for Rahul,'' he remarked.
Another factor that might have weighed on the Gandhis while deciding to shift Rahul to Raebareli was that the Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress' alliance partner, had a significant presence in the constituency and the same was on display on Friday, when a large number of SP workers and local leaders joined Congress workers in welcoming Rahul while he proceeded to file his nomination papers.
Of the six assembly seats in Raebareli district, the SP had won as many as four in the 2022 assembly polls. The BJP had won the remaining two. SP MLA from Unchahar seat in the district Manoj Pandey, however, has since joined the BJP. Rakesh Pratap Singh, an SP MLA from Gauriganj assembly seat in Amethi has also defected to the BJP while another SP MLA from the district Maharaji Devi was also on the verge of joining the saffron party.
The Congress leader said that the party had hit ''two birds with one stone'' by shifting Rahul to Raebareli and making Kishori Lal Sharma its candidate in Amethi. ''Raebareli may come handy in case something happens in Wayanad (if Rahul loses there)... and also Sharma may still pose a challenge to Smriti Irani in Amethi''.
The leader also said that Rahul could leave Raebareli seat for his sister and Congress general secretary Piyanka Gandhi Vadra in case he won from both Wayanad and Raebareli. In fact, a few local Congress leaders in Raebareli also echoed similar opinions.
Top BJP leaders might have been saying that Rahul would lose from Raebareli, district Congress president V K Shukla exuded confidence that Rahul's victory margin would surpass Soniaji's this time.
Whether the Congress' 'strategy' will work, will only be revealed on June 4 (counting day).
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