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Former Congress leader Acharya Pramod said on Friday that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should have contested from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he did not want to contest from Amethi.
“We know how Rahul Gandhi migrated from Amethi. Any other leader in his place, who takes decisions after carefully weighing his credibility and acceptability, would have considered contesting directly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi if he did not wish from Amethi,” Acharya Krishnam told news agency ANI in an interview.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. This is the third time PM Modi is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi. He secured major victories during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the seat and even surpassed the victory margins of his predecessor and BJP stalwart Murali Manohar Joshi.
‘Priyanka Gandhi a victim of…’
Acharya Pramod also called Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi a “victim” of “conspiracy in the family and party”. He said, “I said this earlier that Rahul Gandhi will not contest Amethi. I said this, too, that Rahul Gandhi will not let Priyanka Gandhi Vadra fight these elections.”
“There is a big conspiracy afoot against Priyanka. She is the victim of a conspiracy hatched by her family and the party,” Acharya Krishnam said on Friday.
Krishnam’s statement came hours after the Congress declared Rahul Gandhi its candidate from Congress stronghold Raebareli, instead of Amethi, for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Acharya Pramod Krishnam was expelled by the Congress for “indiscipline” in February 2024.
The Raebareli seat was vacated recently by Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, who took membership of the Rajya Sabha from Jaipur.
Rahul Gandhi will now fight the Lok Sabha Elections from Raebareli against Uttar Pradesh minister and BJP leader Dinesh Pratap Singh. He is also seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from the Wayanad seat that polled in Phase 2 of the general elections on April 26.
In Amethi, the Congress bastion that fell to the BJP five years ago, in 2019; the Congress will be represented by Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime loyalist of the Gandhi family.
The voting in both seats will be held in the fifth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on May 7.
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Published: 03 May 2024, 07:33 PM IST
