Gandhi is the main determine in an opposition alliance combating an uphill battle on this yr’s polls in opposition to Modi, who stays broadly in style.
1000’s of supporters thronged India’s most distinguished opposition chief Rahul Gandhi throughout a marketing campaign procession earlier than his formal nomination for the parliamentary election beginning this month.
Gandhi, 53, is the son, grandson, and great-grandson of former prime ministers, however his Congress occasion has already suffered two landslide defeats in opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
He’s the main determine in an opposition alliance combating an uphill battle on this yr’s polls in opposition to Modi, who stays broadly in style after a decade in energy and is more likely to retain workplace comfortably.
However Gandhi was given a rousing reception in Wayanad, a picturesque city within the southern state of Kerala, with an enormous crowd gathering to cheer his arrival on Wednesday.
“I don’t consider you as my citizens however as my household,” he advised the gathering from atop a truck, flanked by his youthful sister Priyanka and cadres from his occasion.
Gandhi formally filed his nomination, vying to retain the Wayanad seat, with the native election workplace after the rally.
He was first elected from the constituency in 2019 however was briefly disqualified from parliament final yr after his conviction for felony libel in a case filed by a member of the BJP.
He was reinstated pending a Supreme Court docket attraction, however his resolution to recontest the seat has induced some friction inside the opposition Indian Nationwide Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), of which Congress is a component.
His principal challenger is firebrand left-wing candidate Annie Raja of the Communist Celebration of India, a fellow member of the INDIA bloc. Her allies have criticised Gandhi for not selecting to struggle in one other seat in opposition to a longtime candidate from Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
“Your complete nation ought to talk about the inappropriateness of this,” Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, a member of Raja’s occasion, advised reporters on Tuesday.
Within the 2019 normal election, Gandhi misplaced his previously protected seat of Amethi within the northern Uttar Pradesh state to the then-rising BJP star, Smriti Irani. He blamed the defeat on the BJP utilizing “your entire equipment of the Indian state” in opposition to the opposition.
Beginning April 19, practically a billion Indians will vote to elect a brand new authorities within the seven-phase election. The votes can be counted on June 4.