Sonia Gandhi files nomination paper for Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan

New Delhi: Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed her nomination paper for a Rajya Sabha berth from Rajasthan. Accompanied by her children and top party leaders, Gandhi filed her nomination papers before the officials in Jaipur.

With this, 77-year-old Gandhi opted out of contesting yet another election to retain her Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in UP which she represented five times in a row since 2004.


The Congress leaders attributed her seeking a Rajya Sabha seat to her "poor health" but, it also coincides with the Congress facing electoral uncertainty in Rae Bareli this time, a seat that now the BJP is trying eyeing after it wrested the neighbouring Amethi from Rahul Gandhi in the last poll. Rae Bareli is the only Lok Sabha seat from UP that the Congress won in the last Lok Sabha election.

This marks the first time in half a century a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family seeking a Rajya Sabha route to Parliament, the last being Indira Gandhi briefly in 1964 before she opted for the Lok Sabha contests.