Handing over my son to you: Sonia Gandhi in Raebareli

Neeraj Mohan

New Delhi, May 17

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sonia Gandhi on Friday made an emotional appeal to the voters in Raebareli, a stronghold of the Congress, to vote for her son and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“Main aapko apna beta saup rahi hoon (I am handing over my son to you),” said Sonia at a poll rally amid a thunderous applause from the crowd.

It’s not a family seat, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah attacked Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for calling UP’s Raebareli a family seat and said if elected, the INDI alliance would put a “Babri lock on the Ram Temple”. “The Raebareli and Amethi seats do not belong to any family. They belong to the poor youth of the two districts,” he said.

“Your love and blessings have accompanied me at every step. I have never felt alone because of your unwavering support. You have given me everything, and now, I entrust my son to you. Just as you embraced me as your own, I urge you to embrace Rahul as your own. Rest assured, he will not let you down,” she said, with Rahul and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi by her side. She thanked the people of the constituency for giving her an opportunity to serve them as an MP for 20 years.

Sonia, who represented the Gandhi family’s traditional seat of Raebareli for five terms, has now vacated the seat for Rahul, saying she was unable to contest the poll due to health issues. She has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan. Rahul promised he would treat Amethi and Raebareli equally in terms of development if the Congress was elected at the Centre. He has been an MP from Amethi thrice and was defeated by sitting MP Smriti Irani in 2019.

“If Rs 10 is spent on development in Raebareli, it will be the same for Amethi…this is my promise,” he said, addressing a joint rally with Samajwadi Party chief and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in support of Congress candidate KL Sharma. Rahul said Sharma had been serving Amethi for the past 40 years and was among the 150 office-bearers appointed by his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“Sharma ji has sacrificed his political career in service of Amethi and now the time has come to send him to the Lok Sabha…he will raise your voice there,” he said, urging the crowd to vote for him in the May 20 poll.