Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha-to-Rajya Sabha shift this year – from representing Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh to the state of Rajasthan – was supposed to signal a change in the leadership structure of a party many see as struggling for relevance before the general election.

Ms Gandhi – a 25-year veteran of the Lower House and the face of the Congress, in parliament and outside – this week said she would not seek re-election from Raebareli, a Congress stronghold previously held by Feroze Gandhi and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The 77-year-old Ms Gandhi this morning said “health and increasing age” meant she would not contest the Lok Sabha election, and she called on the people of Raebareli to “be with my family”.

That the Congress will field, so long as is possible, a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family from Raebareli (particularly after the 2019 loss of its other UP stronghold, Amethi, to the BJP) is a given.

The question, then, is which member of the family will stand from Raebareli.

There is widespread speculation Ms Gandhi’s daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will be that choice, and make her electoral debut from a seat once held by her grandmother, Indira Gandhi; that choice seems all the more plausible given the striking resemblance between the two.

Ms Gandhi Vadra, though, has ben here before – on the edge of an electoral contest. Fielding her from Raebareli might seem like a safe bet, but memories of Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi loss – to a strident campaign by Smriti Irani – must linger, and give the party pause.

A second successive defeat for a Gandhi will be a disastrous turn-up.

There is also speculation Ms Gandhi Vadra might, in fact, contest the election, but not from Raebareli. She might, instead opt to face Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.

Often asked this question in the past, Ms Gandhi Vadra has repeatedly said she is ready to do as the Congress asks and requires, an answer that has never fully settled the matter.

The only other feasible option is Rahul Gandhi, who offset his Amethi loss by winning from Kerala’s Wayanad. There is no indication, however, at present, Mr Gandhi, also busy with the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, is considering returning to the volatile politics of UP.

Effectively, that leaves the Congress with a twin problem – who to field from Amethi (most likely against a Smriti Irani raring to repeat her giant-killer feat) and who to position in neighbouring Raebareli. 

In her open letter Ms Gandhi underlined the “close relationship” her family, and the party, has with the seat, saying, “Our family’s ties… run very deep… you made my father-in-law, Feroze Gandhi, win… after him, you made my mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi your own.”

Ms Gandhi also underlined her emotional connect with the people of Raebareli, remembering she stood only a few years after her husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated, and after having also lost her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi.

“After losing my mother-in-law and my life partner… I came to you and you spread your arms for me. In the last two elections, you stood by me like a rock… I can never forget this.”

The Congress has been beaten thrice here – the first time was in 1977, when post-Emergency elections took the seat from Indira Gandhi and gave it to the Janata Party. 

Ashok Singh of the BJP then claimed back-to-back shock wins in 1996 and 1998, when Indira Gandhi’s cousins, Vikram Kaul and Deepa Kaul, were fielded.

Actor and MP Mimi Chakraborty has submitted her resignation to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, but it has not been accepted. The MP from Jadavpur says she has difference with the local Trinamool leadership. She has said that the Chief Minister assured her that she will take care of the issues.

“I had a dream for Jadavpur, but I faced a lot of hurdles. It is very easy to malign a person when he or she comes from a film background, saying that he or she does not work,” she said.

“I don’t understand the nitty-gritty of politics. When I reached out to people, I think it might not have gone down well with a lot of people or may be some of them,” the actor MP added.

A popular filmstar in Bengal, she was elected from Jadavpur in 2019 on a Trinamool Congress ticket. She had defeated political heavyweights – the BJP’s Anupam Hazra and the CPM’s Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya.

Ms Chakraborty’s resignation comes at a time when another actor MP from Bengal, Nusrat Jahan, is drawing fire over her silence on the allegations of sexual harassment against Trinamool leaders in Sandeshkhali.

The BJP targeted the Basirhat MP over photos of her Valentine’s Day celebration with partner and actor Yash Dasgupta. “Priorities matter: In Sandeshkhali, women are protesting for their respect. Meanwhile, the TMC MP of Basirhat is celebrating Valentine’s Day,” the Bengal BJP said in a post on X.

Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday cited last week’s Election Commission order – recognising Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as the leader of the ‘real Nationalist Congress Party‘ – to reject petitions seeking disqualification of 41 MLAs who rebelled against Sharad Pawar in June last year, triggering a split and a battle for control of the NCP.

Mr Narwekar said the MLAs who joined Ajit Pawar in rebelling against his uncle – and allied with the BJP and a similar breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena – to form a new state government, could not be disqualified as they constituted the “will of the party”.

“I hold that (the) Ajit Pawar-led NCP is the real political party. Ajit Pawar has the legislative majority with 41 MLAs. This is undisputed,” he said, “All petitions seeking disqualification of are rejected.”

The Supreme Court last month gave Mr Narwekar till February 15 to decide on disqualification petitions against MLAs affiliated to Ajit Pawar’s group.

Before the split the NCP had 53 MLAs. 

After the dust settled, 41 of them sided with Ajit Pawar, leaving only 12 with Sharad Pawar as he tried to re-assert control over the party he helped found in 1999, and has since led.

Last week the Election Commission said the Ajit Pawar faction would be recognised as the ‘real NCP’, thereby giving it control over the party name and symbol (a clock) weeks before the Lok Sabha election and polls to fill six to-be-vacant Rajya Sabha seats in the state.

READ | Ajit Pawar’s Faction Named Real NCP In Setback For Sharad Pawar

The poll panel gave Sharad Pawar mere hours to decide on a new name, and his faction was eventually renamed as the Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar.

READ | Sharad Pawar’s Party Assigned New Name By Election Commission

Sources said the Commission’s decision was based on the numerical strength of the two factions, something Mr Narwekar referred to, and relied on, in this instance too.

A furious NCP called the Election Commission’s actions “murder of democracy”.

“The whole world knows who founded the NCP. So what the Election Commission did, despite that, is the murder of democracy…” Anil Desmukh, a former Minister, said.

Sharad Pawar’s camp has approached the Supreme Court over the EC order.

The decision played out like the Sena Vs Sena fight, in which the faction led by Eknath Shinde (made Chief Minister after rebelling and allying with the BJP) was called the ‘real Sena’, leaving Uddhav Thackeray racing, weeks before an election, to find a new identity for the party his father founded.

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