Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress candidate from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, Kishori Lal Sharma said he will defeat Smriti Irani in the upcoming general elections.
Speaking to ANI, Sharma said he is a seasoned politician from the Congress party and not on payroll for the Gandhi family.
“It was the decision of the party leadership because earlier it was not finalised who will contest from here… The thing is that now I will defeat Smriti Irani. This is a big statement I am making today… ‘Mai koi Naukri nahi kar raha Gandhi Parivar ki’. I am a politician. I came here in 1983 through the Youth Congress. I don’t take salary from Congress. I am a pure politician…” Sharma stated.
Who is Congress’ Amethi pick KL Sharma?
Sharma hails from Ludhiana, Punjab. His association with Congress can be traced back to 1983, when he began working with Rajiv Gandhi. After Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, he worked with Captain Satish Sharma in Amethi and was associated with Sonia Gandhi as the in charge of the constituency, when she first contested the elections from Amethi in 1999.
Later for some time, he worked as in-charge of both Raebareli and Amethi seats. After Sonia Gandhi vacated the Amethi seat and moved to Raebareli, KL Sharma moved to the city with her. Sharma has worked for the Congress party in Bihar and Punjab as well.
Sharma 3rd non-Gandhi contesting from Amethi in 57 years
This marks only the third time that a non-family Congress member has contested from the Amethi seat. In fact, this is the first time in a quarter of a century, that a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family is not the electoral race from Amethi.
The last instance of a non-Gandhi family member being fielded from Amethi was in 1998 when the Congress chose veteran leader Captain Satish Sharma for the seat. Sharma, however, lost to BJP’s Sanjaya Sinh. Prior to that, Capt Sharma had emerged victorious against BJP’s Raja Mohan Singh in the 1996 general elections.
Amethi has been a stronghold of the Congress party since its inception in 1967, except for a few years in the 1970s and 1990s, and more recently in 2019 when BJP leader Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress party released the names of candidates on May 3, the last date of filing of nominations for the two seats, thus ending the weeks-long speculation about party candidates for the two seats. It was earlier speculated that Priyanka Gandhi would contest from Rebareli and Rahul from Amethi.
Raebareli and Amethi will go to polls in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha Elections on May 20. Rahul Gandhi will contest Lok Sabha Elections 2024 from Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli seat – the Nehru-Gandhi family stronghold vacated by his mother, Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul has is already contested the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala’s Wayanad seat that he won in 2019. Wayanad went to polls in second phase on April 26.
The Congress is contesting 17 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. In the remaining 63 seats, the INDIA bloc will have nominees from the Samajwadi Party and other smaller allies.
(With inputs from ANI)
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Published: 05 May 2024, 12:14 PM IST