INVC,
Amethi,
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections 2014 on Saturday from Amethi constituency which he has represented in Lok Sabha twice and expressed confidence about retaining it for the third straight time.
Rahul Gandhi’s mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi was by his side when he filed the nomination papers at the Amethi collectorate this afternoon.
Challenged by BJP’s crowd-puller, actor Smriti Irani, and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas, the two-time MP Gandhi arguably faces the toughest electoral battle of his political career.
Prior to filing his nominations, Rahul Gandhi undertook a 42-km-long roadshow from Amhart in Sultanpur to Gauriganj in Amethi and was accompanied by sister Priyanka Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra.
“I didn’t make any personal remark, just stated the facts. I just said that he (Modi) has mentioned something not previously mentioned in his affidavits,” Mr Gandhi said after filing his nomination from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Gandhi, 43, who had spoken about Mr Modi’s marital status at an election rally in Jammu and Kashmir on April 11, refused to take any further questions on the topic. “We don’t know how many elections he has fought, but for the first time he has written that he is married. In Delhi, they talk about respecting women… but his wife’s name never found its way into the affidavit,” he had said in the rally.
Sources in the Congress said Mr Gandhi’s sister Priyanka, who is overseeing the party campaign, was against any personal attacks and reportedly advised her brother not to get personal.
Earlier, Mr Gandhi along with his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka and brother-in-law Robert Vadra reached Amethi to file his nomination papers. The Congress vice president also took part in a roadshow.
Mr Gandhi, who won from Amethi in 2004 and 2009, faces BJP’s Smriti Irani and Aam Aadmi Party’s Kumar Vishwas this time.
