RS polls: Sonia Gandhi files nomination as Congress candidate from Rajasthan

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed her nomination papers here for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from RajasthanHer children Rahul Gandhi and Piyanka Gandhi former chief minister Ashok Gehlot PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra leader of opposition Tikaram Jully were present at the time of the nomination filing in the assembly buildingBefore filing nomination Sonia Gandhi met with the party MLAs in the opposition lobby of the assemblyThe Congress is comfortably placed to win one of the three Rajya Sabha seats from Rajasthan for which elections will be held The seat will fall vacant after former prime minister Manmohan Singh completes his sixyear tenure in AprilIt will be Sonia Gandhis first term in the Upper House after serving five terms as a Lok Sabha MPThe 77yearold who represented Rae Bareli in Lok Sabha will not contest the next general elections She was first elected as an MP in 1999 after taking over as the Congress presidentIn a post on X earlier in the day Gehlot said We heartily welcome the announcement of respected Smt Sonia Gandhi ji as the Rajya Sabha candidate from the Congress Party who renounced the post of Prime MinisterToday her announcement as Rajya Sabha candidate from Rajasthan is a matter of happiness for the entire state and with this announcement all the old memories have been refreshed he addedA total of 56 members of Rajya Sabha from 15 states are retiring in April and the election to the seats will be held on February 27 The last date for filing nominations is February 15Sonia Gandhi will be the second member of the Gandhi family to enter Rajya Sabha after former prime minister Indira Gandhi who was a member of the Upper House from August 1964 to February 1967The party has not formally declared any candidate for the biennial Rajya Sabha electionsGandhi had announced in 2019 that it would be her last Lok Sabha electionSpeculation is rife that her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could contest from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency after Sonia Gandhi opted out this timeThat Sonia Gandhi chose to contest from Rajasthan and not from a southern state like Telangana or Karnataka where the party is also comfortably placed to win is also a signal that the Congress first family is not abandoning the HindiheartlandThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever