Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: The Congress in Kerala has suggested that party president Rahul Gandhi should contest the Lok Sabha election from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. The party argued that Gandhi contesting from two seats in northern and southern regions of the country “will strengthen national unity and integration” and energise the party workers. The Congress units of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have strongly urged Gandhi to contest from their States, but he has not taken a decision yet, multiple sources said.
While, the decision in this regard is yet to be taken by the Congress President, former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, too, had contested the polls from a seat in the north as well as in south India. The former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had contested and won the poll from Chikmagalur in 1978 and Medak seats in 1980 besides Rae Bareli. Rahul Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi had too contested and won from Bellary in Karnataka in 1999 besides Amethi.
Indira Gandhi after being defeated in the post-Emergency General Elections of 1977 and thrown out of office, chose Chikmagalur to contest again in October 1978, in the historic by-election. That time, one of her slogans read, “Give your vote to your little daughter”. As per the reports, even today, the people of Chikmagalur haven’t forgotten her and take great pride in their Indira connection.
While in 1999, Sonia Gandhi contested and won the Lok Sabha election. She filed her nomination from two constituencies—Bellary, Karnataka, and the Gandhi family seat of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. 1999 saw a direct contest for a parliamentary seat between Sonia Gandhi and prominent politician of BJP Sushma Swaraj. It was a historic election again as on the one hand, Swaraj styled herself a swadeshi beti (Indian daughter) in contrast to Gandhi as a videshi bahu (foreign daughter-in-law), thereby hinting at the latter’s Italian origin. While Gandhi stressed the relation to her illustrious family, especially her late husband Rajiv Gandhi and deceased mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, both former prime ministers of India.
