New Delhi, May 23: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is leading against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh in the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, early trends during vote counting indicate.
In this election, the seat holds significance because Sonia Gandhi is no longer involved in active party politics and has handed over reins of the party to her son and Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Rae Bareli seat is the traditional stronghold for Congress party. Gandhi is seeking re-election from Rae Bareli for the fifth time in a row. Sonia Gandhi had won the seat in 2004, 2006 (bypolls), 2009 and 2014. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi held the seat between 1967 and 1977.
Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination papers for the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls on April 11. Voting on the seat was held on May 6 during the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Her rival Dinesh Pratap Singh was elected to the state legislative council for the second time in 2016 and left the Congress last year to join the BJP.
In 2014, Rae Bareli and Amethi were the only two seats the Congress managed to win in UP.
Mahagathbandhan, the grand-alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal has not fielded its candidate from Rae Bareli to avoid division of votes in the opposition camp.
During Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Rae Bareli had 1,594,954 registered voters-- 857,875 of them male and 737,079 female.
The constituency saw a 51.73% voter turnout in 2014 elections. Male voter turnout in Rae Bareli stood at 51.03% and 52.56% female voters turned out for voting.
In 2014, Sonia Gandhi beat Ajay Agrawal of BJP by receiving 63.80% per cent of the votes cast in this constituency. The victory margin in terms of number of votes stood at 352,713. Votes were cast on 1,659 polling booths in Rae Bareli.
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