Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress candidate from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency Kishori Lal Sharma said that he will defeat Smriti Irani in the upcoming general elections.
Speaking to ANI, Sharma said that he is a seasoned politician of the Congress party and is not on the payroll of the Gandhi family.
“This was a decision of the party leadership because earlier it was not decided who would contest from here… The thing is that now I will defeat Smriti Irani.” This is a big statement that I am giving today… ‘I am not doing any job for the Gandhi family’. I am a politician. I came here in 1983 through Youth Congress. I do not take salary from Congress. I am a pure politician…” Sharma said.
Who is KL Sharma of Congress elected from Amethi?
Sharma is a resident of Ludhiana, Punjab. His association with the Congress can be traced back to 1983, when he started 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 constituency in-charge when she first contested Amethi in 1999.
Later, for some time he worked as in-charge of both Rae Bareli and Amethi seats. After Sonia Gandhi vacated the Amethi seat and moved to Rae Bareli, KL Sharma came to the city with her. Sharma has also worked for the Congress Party in Bihar and Punjab.
Sharma is the third non-Gandhi to contest elections from Amethi in 57 years.
This is 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 no member of the Nehru-Gandhi family is contesting from Amethi.
The last instance of fielding a non-Gandhi family member from Amethi was in 1998 when the Congress chose veteran leader Captain Satish Sharma for the seat. However, Sharma lost to BJP’s Sanjay Singh. Earlier, Captain Sharma had emerged victorious in the 1996 general elections against BJP’s Raja Mohan Singh.
Since its inception in 1967, except for a few years in the 1970s and 1990s, and most recently in 2019 when BJP leader Smriti Irani defeated Rahul Gandhi, Amethi has been a stronghold of the Congress party.
The Congress party released the names of candidates for both the seats on May 3, the last date for filing nominations, thus ending weeks of speculation about the party’s candidates for both the seats. Earlier there were speculations that Priyanka Gandhi would contest from Raebareli and Rahul Gandhi would contest from Amethi.
Voting will be held in Rae Bareli and Amethi on May 20 in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh – the Nehru-Gandhi family stronghold vacated by his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul has already contested the Lok Sabha elections from Wayanad seat in Kerala, which he won in 2019. The second phase of voting was held in Wayanad on 26 April.
Congress is contesting on 17 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. On the remaining 63 seats, the India block will have candidates from the Samajwadi Party and other smaller allies.
(With inputs from ANI)
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Published: May 05, 2024, 12:14 PM IST
