Suspense on Rahul, Priyanka contesting from Amethi, Rae Bareli continues
New Delhi (PTI): The suspense on whether top Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest the Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seats continued, with only two days left for the nomination process to end.
Amethi and Rae Bareli are considered as traditional pocket boroughs of the Gandhi-Nehru family as its members have represented the seats for several decades.
Sources said Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli, but a final call is yet to be taken by the first family of the Congress.
They added that Priyanka Gandhi is also keen to contest from the Rae Bareli seat, but Rahul Gandhi is not favourable to the idea, considering the criticism of dynasty politics by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the Congress leadership. Sources said he did not want all three members of the Gandhi family to be in parliament.
They also said that a meeting to discuss the candidature for the two seats was held on Wednesday but no decision was taken.
K L Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhis, said people are expecting the Gandhi family members to contest from the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats.
A decision will be taken on the matter “very soon” as the last date for filing nominations for the seats is May 3, he added.
Amid the mounting suspense, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that "nobody is scared" and a decision on the matter would be announced in the next 24-30 hours.
He said that the party's central election committee (CEC) has empowered Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalise the candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli.
"My expectation is that in the next 24-30 hours, the Congress president will finalise and a decision taken by him will be announced," Ramesh said in response to a question at a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.
"Till that is done all the information, all so-called office orders are fake," he said.
Asked why there is a delay in taking a decision and if the Congress was "scared" in fielding Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Ramesh said, "There is no delay. Has the BJP not announced its candidates in Rae Bareli? Smriti Irani is a sitting MP. Nobody is scared, discussions are ongoing, and the Congress president has been authorized."
"There is no delay, there is time till May 3," he said.
The state leadership in Uttar Pradesh has already urged the central election committee and the party leadership to field Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and Priyanka from Rae Bareli.
As speculation mounted, the Congress workers in Amethi on Tuesday also held a sit-in and demanded that the party name a member of the Gandhi family as its candidate from the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency.
The Amethi seat has been represented by Rahul Gandhi since 2004 and he remained a member of Parliament from the constituency for three consecutive terms till 2019 when he was defeated by BJP's Smriti Irani. Rahul Gandhi currently represents the Wayanad constituency in Kerala from where he had also contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul Gandhi had said earlier that he would follow "whatever order" he gets from his party.
The Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.
The Rae Bareli constituency was represented by Sonia Gandhi from 2004 to 2024. Prior to that, Sonia Gandhi had represented the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency after she entered politics and contested for the first time in 1999.
The seat has previously been represented by Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress has forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven phases starting April 19. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.
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Woman's decomposed body found at rented flat in Bengaluru
Bengaluru (PTI): The body of a 34-year-old woman was found in a decomposed condition at her rented flat in Bengaluru, police said on Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Pooja Dutta, a native of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, who was employed with a private company here, they said.
The incident in Adugodi came to light on Monday after neighbours alerted police about a foul smell emanating from her flat, police added.
Police said a team reached the spot, broke open the door and found Dutta's body in a nude and decomposed state, lying in a pool of blood. Preliminary suspicion is that the death may have occurred two to three days earlier, they said.
According to police, no death note was recovered from the spot, though torn papers were found scattered inside the house, prompting suspicion that she may have died by suicide after locking the door from inside.
The body has been sent for post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of death. Once the autopsy report is received, it will be confirmed if it was a suicide or a murder, a senior police officer said, adding that all angles are being probed.
According to the landlady, Dutta had been living in the rented flat for the past three years and was last seen on April 23 when she went out to buy groceries.
The Adugodi police have registered a case of unnatural death, and further investigation is underway.
