Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, February 14, filed her nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Rajasthan. It will be her first term in the Upper House of Parliament after serving five terms as a Lok Sabha MP.
#WATCH | Jaipur | Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi files her nomination for the Rajya Sabha election, from Rajasthan.Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ashok Gehlot and Govind Singh Dotasra are with her.(Video: Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha PRO) pic.twitter.com/htQ5rSFOvV
— ANI (@ANI) February 14, 2024
State Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra said, "This decision will give us strength...We will perform very well under the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge and you...We will make Congress win. Our goal is to ensure that Rahul Gandhi becomes the PM of the country."
Gandhi, who represented Rae Bareli in Lok Sabha, will not contest the 2024 general elections. She has been a five-term Lok Sabha MP and was first elected in 1999 after taking over as the Congress president.
A total of 56 members of Rajya Sabha from 15 states are retiring in April and the election to the seats will be held on February 27. The last date for filing nominations is February 15.
The Congress is comfortably placed to win one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan for which elections will be held. The seat will fall vacant after former prime minister Manmohan Singh completes his six-year tenure in April.
She will be the second member of the Gandhi family to enter Rajya Sabha after former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was a member of the Upper House from August 1964 to February 1967.
Gandhi had announced in 2019 that it would be her last Lok Sabha election.
She chose to contest from Rajasthan and not from a southern state like Telangana or Karnataka, where the party is also comfortably placed to win, is also a signal that the Congress' first family is not abandoning the Hindi-heartland.
With inputs from PTI
First Published: Feb 14, 2024 9:57 AM IST
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