GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 4th June. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, contesting from Kerala’s Wayanad and Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Rae Bareli seats, has won both constituencies with a thumping margin of votes, reported the Election Commission of India (ECI) website.
In Wayanad, Gandhi defeated the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) Annie Raja by a massive 3,64,422 votes, while Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kerala State President K Surendran finished third, securing 1,41,045 votes.
In the traditional Congress bastion of Rae Bareli, the Congress leader triumphed over the BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh by an even larger margin of 3,89,341 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Thakur Prasad Yadav came third with 21,588 votes.
This victory is not Rahul Gandhi’s first experience of contesting from two Lok Sabha seats. In 2019, he faced a tough battle in Amethi, losing to Union Minister and senior BJP leader Smriti Irani. However, he secured a resounding win in Wayanad.
Since 2014, the former Congress president has been actively leading his party’s campaign to improve its electoral performance. India’s grand old party not only lost general elections but also ceded power in many states.
As the votes were being counted, initial results showed a close contest between him and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates Dinesh Pratap Singh in Uttar Pradesh and K Surendran in Kerala.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Rahul secured a 64.67% vote share from Wayanad, defeating Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate PP Suneer, who managed to get 25.14%. The victory margin was recorded at 39.53%, a figure unmatched by any winning candidate in the constituency so far.
In that year, the Gandhi scion lost from Amethi, a constituency he had represented in the lower house of Parliament for three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2019. His political opponent, Smriti Irani, secured 49.71% of the votes, while he received 43.86%.
In the run-up to the 2024 elections, Rahul Gandhi chose Rae Bareli, a seat held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for 20 straight years from 2004 to 2024. Sonia Gandhi has opted out of the heat and dust of the Lok Sabha election and is now a member of the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP’s candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh reduced Sonia Gandhi’s victory margin to 17.44% from 42.75% in 2014, when she faced the saffron party’s Ajay Agrawal.
Rae Bareli went to the polls in the fifth phase on May 20, recording a voter turnout of 58.12%, while Wayanad voted in the second phase on April 26, with a turnout of 72.69%.
The Lok Sabha polls for 543 seats were conducted in seven phases, starting from April 19. The Bharatiya Janata Party is aiming for a rare third consecutive term at the Centre, with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.
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