Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Rae Bareli's tryst with Gandhi family. Will Rahul Gandhi do it this time?

livemint.com:

Rahul Gandhi from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli brings the focus back on the VVIP segment which was first represented in the Lok Sabha by the former Congress president's grandfather Feroze Gandhi, who held the seat in the first two elections after Independence. The strong foundations that Feroze Gandhi laid in the constituency were later nurtured and strengthened by his wife and former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who won from the seat in 1967, 1971 and 1980, followed by friends and family members of the Gandhi family. Indira Gandhi contested from two seats in 1980 -- Rae Bareli and Medak in Telangana -- and chose to retain the Medak seat.

Arun Nehru won the 1980 bypoll and subsequently in 1984. From Arun Nehru, who was late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's right-hand man, to Sheila Kaul, another Gandhi kin, Rae Bareli returned several of the Gandhi family members and aides to the Lok Sabha. The seat was held by Congress' R P Singh in the 1960 bypoll after the demise of Feroze Gandhi, and by another Congress leader Baij Nath Kureel in 1962.

Sheila Kaul, an aunt of Indira Gandhi, represented the seat in 1989 and 1991. In 1999, another friend of the Gandhis, Satish Sharma represented the Rae Bareli constituency, till Sonia Gandhi shifted there. The only time the Congress did not represent the seat was in the wake of the Emergency in 1977 when Janata Party's Raj Narain defeated Indira Gandhi, who was then the prime minister, and BJP's Ashoke Singh in 1996 and 1998.