Sonia Gandhi may run for Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan: Sources

Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi may run for the Rajya Sabha elections from Rajasthan, sources told India Today on Monday. Currently, she is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli, a bastion of the Gandhi family. Earlier in the day, the Madhya Pradesh Congress unit appealed to Sonia Gandhi to represent the state in Rajya Sabha.

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy last week had urged Sonia Gandhi to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from the state's Khammam seat. The request to Sonia Gandhi was being made as people see her as the "mother of Telangana" who gave it statehood, said Reddy.

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Sonia Gandhi has held the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat since 2004. This seat was also represented by Feroze Gandhi from 1952 to 1960, and then Indira Gandhi from 1967 to 1977.  

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sonia Gandhi secured 534,918 votes (55.80%) against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh who got 367,740 votes. Her vote share, however, had declined by 8 per cent. In Amethi, another stringhold of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi was defeated by BJP's Smriti Irani. 

Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh could be nominated as the Congress candidate from Bihar. Other leaders likely to be fielded by the Congress for Rajya Sabha polls include Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Ajay Maken, sources said. The Congress is expected to announce its candidates within the next one to two days.

Rajya Sabha elections for as many as 56 seats in 15 states are all set to be held on February 27. The last date for filing nomination papers is February 15.

(With inputs from Rahul Gautam)