RAE BARELI : After performing a ‘havan’, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today filed her nomination papers from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in yet another bid to reach Parliament from the family bastion in central Uttar Pradesh.
Accompanied by her son Rahul, Gandhi, 67, who had won the seat three times earlier, including in a by-election, presented three sets of nomination before district election officer Aditi Singh.
Old family loyalist Satish Sharma and her representative K L Sharma were with her when she filed the papers in which the proposers were Uma Shankar Singh (district president of Congress), Ashok Kumar Singh (former MLA) and Rajaram Tyagi (former MLA).
Before she went into the district collectorate to file the nomination, a ‘havan’ was performed at the local Congress office in which Sonia and Rahul participated.
While SP has decided not to field anyone against her and Rahul, BJP has fielded Supreme Court lawyer Ajay Aggarwal. The AAP is yet to announce a candidate.
“The people of Rae Bareli have adopted me with immense affection and I hope they will make me victorious again in the election,” she told reporters in a brief interaction after filing her nomination.
After done with the formalities of getting into the election fray, Gandhi called on some Muslim clerics which she said had been a tradition from the days of Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.
“We are not in the game or business of polarisation,” she told reporters who asked her about her meeting with Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ali Bukhari at her residence in Delhi yesterday during which she had said secular votes should not split in the coming election. (AGENCIES)
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