Keeping up with UP | Priyanka in Rae Bareli and Rahul in Amethi will likely liven the ongoing lacklustre elections

All in all, their candidature for these two constituencies could infuse a spark that seems to be missing in the election-campaign narrative.

Though their candidature — or not — is likely to be confirmed only after the second phase of polling on April 26, preparations have begun in the two constituencies. The district Congress President of Amethi, Pradeep Singhal said: "Bhaiya (brother) will come here, contest from here, the public is waiting to fight his election".

The Congress has formed election coordination committees in both constituencies comprising senior leaders, perhaps even Sonia Gandhi, and local party persons and workers; The Congress party's legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra, has been made in charge of elections in Amethi.

The party offices in Amethi, which were literally deserted for five years are being spruced up. Local party leaders, who did not wish to be named, insisted that preparations are on for Rahul Gandhi to contest the polls.

In between, Priyanka Gandhi's husband Robert Vadra had unexpectedly expressed his interest in contesting from Amethi but that's unlikely.

Since 1980, barring 1998, the Gandhi family or their nominees have won 11 elections in Amethi. All the more interesting is their family connection with Rae Bareli. Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's husband, had contested the first election in 1952 and again in 1957. The 1960 and 1962 elections were won by Congress but not by the family. Thereafter, barring 1977, 1996, and 1998, all elections were won by the Congress in general and family and friends in particular — Arun Nehru, Shiela Kaul, and Satish Sharma preserved the seat for them as and when needed; Sonia Gandhi won her first election from the seat in 2004.

The Congress leaders quoted earlier asked: "Why would our leaders leave their seats, their home state? They are not scared of the BJP."

The Congress party's leaders are of the view that the Gandhis should contest from Uttar Pradesh to retain their several-decades-old connection with the state, even though the party seems to have slipped into a moribund state.

That precisely is the point troubling the BJP as they don't want Gandhis to even have a foothold in the two constituencies anymore. After Sonia Gandhi announced her decision to enter Rajya Sabha, instead of fighting her way to the Lok Sabha, some leaders in the BJP quipped: "If not a Congress mukt (free) Bharat, let it be Congress mukt (free) Uttar Pradesh."

They seemed confident that after his humiliating defeat in the family bastion last time, Rahul may not contest from Amethi; in fact, he has not visited the constituency in the last five years.

However, his 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' passed through the two constituencies last February, evoking displays of emotions on the streets. He, of course, did not indicate whether he would contest from Amethi.

As of now, in the BJP camp, while Smriti Irani is all geared up to take on Rahul in case he decides to contest from his home seat, there is speculation about the party high command wanting Priyanka's cousin Varun Gandhi to contest against her in Rae Bareli.

Varun has been given another week to take a decision, even though he had declined the offer first. He is most unlikely to agree.

He was dropped from Pilibhit, the seat won by him and his mother Menaka Gandhi in over half a dozen elections in the last three decades. Menaka is re-contesting from Sultanpur - a seat adjoining Rae Bareli.

Though the suspense will be over after the election on April 26 in Kerala as Rahul is contesting from Wayanad, about three prominent BJP leaders are presently campaigning in Rae Bareli. Elections in Rae Bareli and Amethi are scheduled in the fifth phase on May 20 and the last date for filing nominations is May 3.

Rae Bareli is a constituency in the country that has elected a galaxy of high-profile MPs -Nehru's son-in-law Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi. The constituency also created history of sorts when it defeated a PM and elected Socialist leader Raj Narain in 1977.

Supreme Court advocate Ajay Agarwal — whose claim to fame is the persistence with which he has pursued the Bofors case in the Supreme Court — had contested the 2014 elections against Sonia Gandhi. He has been campaigning in Rae Bareli for the past four months.

"I spoke to everyone and I am confident of getting the ticket." Even in 2014, he was given a ticket 24 hours before the last date to file nominations.

The other two possible candidates are Manoj Pandey, who quit the Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP in February 2024, and minister, Dinesh Pratap Singh, who contested the 2019 polls against Sonia Gandhi.

The BJP seems to be waiting for the Congress to declare their high-profile nominees for the two seats: As it turns out, so is everyone tracking India's 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 

Sunita Aron is a consulting editor with the HT based in Lucknow. You can find her on X as @overto. The weekly column, Keeping up with UP tackles everything from politics to social and cultural mores in the country's most populous state. The views expressed are personal.