Sonia Gandhi to file nomination for Rajya Sabha polls from Rajasthan: Sources

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi will file her nomination from Rajasthan for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, party sources said on Tuesday.

The sources said she will be travelling to Jaipur and party president Mallikarjun Kharge and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are likely to accompany her for the filing of nomination papers.

Gandhi, who represented Rae Bareli in Lok Sabha, will not contest the next general election.

“She is likely to file nomination for Rajya Sabha on Wednesday,” a source said.

The last date for filing nominations is February 15 and elections will be held on February 27.

The Congress is comfortably placed to win Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

The party has not declared any candidate for the biennial elections for 56 seats from 15 states.

Gandhi had announced in 2019 that it would be her last Lok Sabha election.

Sources add that with Sonia Gandhi opting out of the race, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may fill in by contesting either from her Rae Bareli seat or from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, previously held by Rahul Gandhi.

A final decision on whether she will contest the Lok Sabha election is yet to be taken by the party leadership, the sources said.

Sonia Gandhi has been a five-term Lok Sabha MP after she was first elected in 1999 after taking over as the Congress president.