From Feroze to Rahul: Brief history of Rae Bareli, bastion of Gandhi-Nehru family

Feroze Gandhi’s seat in 1952, 1957 elections

The Gandhi-Nehru family’s association with the constituency in Uttar Pradesh began in 1952, with the election of Feroze Gandhi, son-in-law of Jawaharlal Nehru and husband of Indira Gandhi.

At the time, ‘Pratapgarh District (West)-cum-Rae Bareli District (West)’ was a two-member constituency. Feroze was elected from the general category, and Baijnath Kureel from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. Both ran on Congress tickets, and repeated their success in the 1957 elections, prior to which the constituency was officially renamed Rae Bareli.

Feroze, however, did not complete his second term, passing away in 1960 at the age of only 47. In the 1962 elections, two-member constituencies were abolished, and Rae Bareli became a reserved constituency for SC candidates. Kureel was elected from the seat once again.

Indira Gandhi wins in 1967, 1971

Rae Bareli was de-reserved in 1967. Indira Gandhi, who till then had been a member of the Rajya Sabha (and prime minister), contested her first Lok Sabha poll from her late husband’s seat, winning over 55% of the votes polled.

Despite the Congress split of 1969, she would improve her performance in 1971, polling over 66% of the votes in the constituency, and defeating Samyukt Socialist Party (SSP) candidate Raj Narain by a margin of over 1.1 lakh votes. But this victory did not come without controversy.

After his loss, Raj Narain filed a petition before the Allahabad High Court accusing Indira of having used the government machinery to gain an unfair advantage in the election.

On June 12, 1975 Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha found Indira guilty of electoral malpractices, and declared Raj Narain winner from Rae Bareli. On June 24, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court judgement, but allowed Indira to continue as prime minister pending the resolution of her appeal. This paved the way for Gandhi declaring Emergency on the midnight of June 25/26.

Indira loses in 1977, Congress retakes seat in 1980

The 1977 Lok Sabha elections, held after 21 oppressive months of Emergency, saw Raj Narain, contesting on a Bhartiya Lok Dal (BLD) ticket, defeat Indira by a margin of 55,202 votes in Rae Bareli. This was the first time a non-Congress candidate had won from the constituency.

But the Janata Party government collapsed in a couple of years. In the 1980 elections, Indira contested from two seats — Medak in Andhra Pradesh (present day Telangana), and Rae Bareli. She won in both the seats, notably trouncing Janata Party’s Vijaya Raje Scindia by over 1.7 lakh votes. Indira, however, chose to retain Medak and resigned from the Rae Bareli seat.

In the following by-poll, Congress fielded Arun Nehru, cousin of Indira and a close aide of the Gandhis (Indira and later Rajiv). Arun Nehru would go on to win the 1980 bypolls, and then retain his seat in 1985, amidst a Congress wave in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. In the 1985 elections, Chaudhary Charan Singh’s Lok Dal had fielded Savita Ambedkar, daughter of Dr B R Ambedkar, against Nehru.

1990s: Rae Bareli switches between Congress and BJP

The 1989 and 1991 elections saw Sheila Kaul winning the Congress tickets and defeating the Janata Dal candidates both the times. She was the wife of Kailas Nath Kaul, the brother of Kamala Nehru, and held multiple cabinet posts during her political life, as well as the governership of Himachal Pradesh (briefly from 1995-96).

In the 1996 Lok Sabha polls, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ashok Singh won the election, winning over 1.6 lakh votes. Congress, which had fielded Vikram Kaul, Sheila’s son, stood fourth, winning under 26,000 votes, behind both Janata Dal candidate also named Ashok Singh, and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Babulal Lodhi.

BJP’s Ashok Singh won from Rae Bareli again in 1998, garnering almost 2.4 lakh votes. This time, the Samajwadi Party and BSP candidates came second and third respectively, with Congress’ Deepa Kaul, Sheila’s daughter, coming a distant fourth.

Entry of Sonia into the fray

Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress party in 1998, to arrest the party’s sagging fortunes. In 1999, she fielded Satish Sharma, a trusted aide of Rajiv Gandhi and later Sonia, from Rae Bareli. Sharma would retake the seat for the Congress.

In 2004, Sonia decided to contest from Rae Bareli herself, and defeated SP candidate Ashok Singh by a margin of almost 1.5 lakh votes. The elections saw the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) come to power, with Sonia appointed as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council. She would soon be embroiled in an office-for-profit case and in March 2006, resigned from the Lok Sabha. In the following by-polls, in which she contested from Rae Bareli herself, Sonia defeated BJP general secretary Vinay Katiyar by a record margin of 4.17 lakh votes to retain the seat.

She would once again win from Rae Bareli in 2009, this time defeating BSP candidate R S Kushwaha by over 3.7 lakh votes.

Since 2014: Sonia holds on, despite BJP domination in North India

In 2014, as a BJP wave swept through across northern India, Sonia Gandhi held on to the Rae Bareli constituency. Securing more than 5.26 lakh votes, she defeated BJP’s Ajay Agrawal by over 3.5 lakh votes.

In 2019, the BJP wanted to field veteran Uma Bharti to take down Sonia in Rae Bareli, much like it fielded Smriti Irani against Rahul Gandhi in neighbouring Amethi. Bharti, however, refused and local leader Dinesh Singh, formerly of the Congress, was fielded instead. Amidst another BJP wave, Dinesh Singh put up a tough fight, winning 3.65 lakh votes, as against Sonia’s 5.33 lakh votes. After Rahul lost Amethi, Rae Bareli was the only seat retained by the Congress in 2019.

This year, the contest is set to be between Rahul and Dinesh Singh, currently an Uttar Pradesh MLC, and the state’s horticulture minister.