Rahul to retain Rae Bareli

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who emerged victorious from the Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli and Kerala’s Wayanad, will relinquish the latter, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced on Monday.

Rahul told reporters that Congress leader and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the bypoll from Wayanad. After the decision, Rahul Gandhi said both Rae Bareli and Wayanad “will get two MPs”, while Priyanka added, “I won’t let the people of Wayanad feel Rahul’s absence”.

The announcement came after Congress’ top leadership on Monday held discussions at Kharge’s residence. After winning from both the constituencies in the Lok Sabha election results that were announced on June 4, Rahul had 14 days to vacate one of the seats under the provisions of Representation of People Act.

Earlier in the day, Rahul had said, “I have a dilemma before me, whether I should be the MP of Wayanad or of Rae Bareli. What I will commit to you is that both Wayanad and Rae Bareli will be happy with my decision.”

Sources said that it was also discussed whether Rahul would take up the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

In 2019, Gandhi had contested from Amethi and Wayanad, but lost the north Indian constituency to BJP’s Smriti Irani, and won from Wayanad by a huge margin. In the 2024 polls, he won from both Rae Bareli and Wayanad with margins of over 6.5 lakh and 3.6 lakh votes respectively.