Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat has been in the news since the 1952 Lok Sabha elections. In 1952 and 1957, Jawaharlal Nehru’s son-in-law, Feroze Gandhi, represented the seat. Again, from 1967, the Gandhi family represented the seat. Indira Gandhi won the seat in the 1967 Lok Sabha election. Indira Gandhi represented the seat twice in succession in the 1967 and 1971 Lok Sabha elections. In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, Indira Gandhi was defeated by Raj Narain of the Janta Party by a huge margin of 55262 votes. After her defeat in 1977, Indira Gandhi lost her confidence in the seat, and in 1980, Indira Gandhi contested from two seats. After winning both Medak and Rae Bareli’s seats, Indira Gandhi resigned from Rae Bareli. It was highly doubtful whether Indira Gandhi would contest from the Rae Bareli in 1984 if she were to contest. Since 1952, barring a few occasions, the Gandhi family has represented the seat. In the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won the seat.
But in recent days, after the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress party is losing its base in Rae Bareli swiftly. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election the Congress party won the seat by margin of 3.52 lakh votes while in the 2019 Lok Sabha election the margin of victory was less than half of its 2014 margin.
In the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress party lost heavily. Rae Bareli’s seat consists of five Assembly seats. The Congress party lost heavily on all seats. On all five ACs, the Congress party was neither on 1st nor on 2nd position. In the 2022 Assembly election on three ACs, Unchachar, Rae Bareli and Harchandpur of Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat, the Congress party forfeited its deposit. The Congress party was much behind the Samajwadi Party and the BJP in vote share of the 2022 Assembly election on the five ACs of this constituency. In the 2022 Assembly election, the Congress party got only 13.15 per cent of the votes. As per the 2022 Assembly elections results, the Congress party forfeited its deposit.
The Congress party’s loss of hope in the seat was reflected by the fact that Sonia Gandhi, incumbent MP, had gone to Parliament through Rajya Sabha. Besides, the Congress party did not name a candidate for the seat as of now. The poor performance of the Congress party forced Sonia Gandhi to opt for Rajya Sabha and not name a candidate for the seat. The BJP further got a boost by joining Unachchar SP MLA Manoj Pandey to the BJP. The BJP/NDA seems much ahead of the I.N.D.I Alliance on Rae Bareli’s seat. Rae Bareli’s seat is closer to the Gandhi family than Amethi’s seat. The First Gandhi family member, Sanjay Gandhi, contested and lost from the Amethi LS seat in 1977, while the Rae Bareli seat has been represented by the family since 1952.
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