Lok Sabha Elections 2024:

 Kishori Lal Sharma first came to Amethi in 1983 and has been working for the party in the constituency since then.

New Delhi:

1. Kishori Lal Sharma, a longtime loyalist of the Gandhi family, has been fielded by the Congress from Amethi.
2. The decision was announced this morning, ending weeks of suspense.
3. Rahul Gandhi ,  who was expected to make an all-out bid to win back Amethi, has been announced as the party candidate from Raebareli.
4. Mr Gandhi had lost the family bastion – Amethi -in a shock defeat to the BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019.
5. KL Sharma thanked the party for the opportunity to contest from Amethi – Gandhis’ family bastion – in Uttar Pradesh.
6. KL Sharma says:

“I would like to thank Khargeji, Sonia ji, Rahul ji, and Priyanka ji for giving a “chotte” karyakarta like me an opportunity to contest from a seat that is their family bastion. I will work hard. I have been working in this constituency for the last 40 years,” he said.

BJP alligation

On BJP’s allegations that Gandhis opted out of Amethi because they were “scared”, KL Sharma said that Rahul Gandhi is fighting for the whole country. All you need to know about KL Sharma:

1. Kishori Lal Sharma or KL Sharma is from Ludhiana in Punjab and has been associated with the Congress for over four decades.
2. Kishori Lal Sharma first came to Amethi in 1987 and has been working for the party in the constituency since then.
3. Party sources say Kishori Lal Sharma was a close associate of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. His bond with the Gandhi family grew stronger after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991.
4. KL Sharma, sources say, played a key role in Sonia Gandhi’s first win from Amethi in 1999, which earned her a seat in Parliament.
5. Mr Sharma managed party affairs in Amethi and Raebareili after Sonia Gandhi vacated the seat for son Rahul.

#WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: Congress leader Kishori Lal Sharma files his nomination papers from Amethi for the upcoming #LokSabhaElection2024

BJP has fielded Union Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi. pic.twitter.com/DU72NFgONV

— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2024

Soon after he was declared the Congress candidate for Amethi, KL Sharma thanked the Gandhi family and party president Mallikarjun Kharge. He also said Rahul Gandhi had not run away. Rather he was fighting a battle for the entire nation.

#WATCH | "No member of the Gandhi family contesting from Amethi in itself is an indication that Congress has accepted its defeat from Amethi even before elections, says Amethi MP & Union Minister Smriti Irani.#LokSabhaElection2024 pic.twitter.com/44JllWXcsH

— ANI (@ANI) May 3, 2024

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said, “He [Kishori Lal Sharma] knows every house, worker and family in Amethi… Traditionally, a senior member of the [Gandhi] family contests Raebareli… At present, if we have any supreme leader in Congress, it is Rahul Gandhi. That is why he has come here [Raebareli] from Amethi.”

Union minister Smriti Irani said: 

Reacting to the development, KL Sharma’s political opponent Union minister Smriti Irani said: “No member of the Gandhi family contesting from Amethi in itself is an indication that Congress has accepted its defeat from Amethi even before elections.”

Former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam, who is now in the BJP, said, “Rahul Gandhi will not let Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contest elections. There is a huge conspiracy in the family and the party against Priyanka Gandhi. She is the victim of a conspiracy in the family and the party. Rahul Gandhi should have contested from Varanasi against PM Modi if he did not want to contest from Amethi.”

Amethi And Gandhi Family

The Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh has mostly been contested by the Gandhis since 1980 from the Congress, with the exception of the period between 1991 and 1998. Rajiv Gandhi’s brother and Indira’s son Sanjay Gandhi was the first Gandhi family member to win the seat in 1990. In the bypoll that followed his death, Rajiv Gandhi won the seat in 1981. He won the subsequent polls in 1984, 1989, and 1991. However, after his assassination in 1991, the Congress fielded Gandhi family loyalist Captain Satish Sharma, who held on to the seat till 1998. That year, Sanjay Sinh of the BJP won the seat for a brief period. But in the 1999 Lok Sabha election, Sonia Gandhi wrested it back for the Congress in her electoral debut. In 2004, she moved to Raebareli to make way for her son Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Rahul held on to the seat till 2019 when Smriti Irani bested him. Now, the Congress has pinned its hopes on KL Sharma to gain the seat back for the party and the Gandhi family.