PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY SNAPSHOT

State : Uttar Pradesh

PC Name & Number: Amethi (37) GEN

Total Electors: 16.97,902

Brief About the PC:

Rae Bareli Parliamentary Constituency is located in Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh and is
the administrative headquarters of Rae Bareli District. This PC has a mix of Hindi, Awadhi and
Urdu speakers and is mostly dominated by Hindi speakers. As per the voter list of 2019
elections, Rae Bareli has 16,97,902 electorates and Hindus comprise of around 68% of total
population while Muslims constitute around 30% of the population. Around 90% population in
Rae Bareli is rural while 10% constitute Urban Population. Scheduled Castes comprise of
almost 30% of entire population of Rae Barely.

It has traditionally been a Congress stronghold with Congress winning 17 out of 20 General
elections held on this seat. Indira Gandhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli for
the first time in 1967. However, Indira Gandhi lost the seat in 1977 to Raj Narain. Raj Narain
won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
which led to her disqualification and imposition of Emergency in India in 1975. He then
defeated Indira Gandhi during the 1977 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Barely seat.

Since 2004, Sonia Gandhi has won in all the Lok Sabha elections held on this seat and is the
current Member of Parliament from Rae Bareli. The performance of BJP has improved
significantly on this seat in the last two elections. BJP managed to get only 3.82 % of the
popular votes in 2009 General Elections while in 2019 BJP managed to get 38.36% votes. On
the other hand the performance of INC has been on a decline in the last three elections as
the party’s vote share has come down to 55.80% in 2019 polls as compared to the 80.49%
vote share INC managed to win in 2006 by polls.

Past Election Data:

YEAR WINNER RUNNER UP

Prominent Leader:

Sonia Gandhi (75), wife of Late PM Rajiv Gandhi and President of INC, contested from Rae
Bareli for the first time in 2004 and since then she has been winning this seat in every elections
that were held. Rae Bareli is considered as the Last Bastion for Congress in UP as in 2019 Lok
Sabha elections, Congress lost Amethi seat also.
 PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY SNAPSHOT

Positives People in Rae Bareli are emotionally connected with the Gandhi family and
consider their seat as a VIP seat. Sonia Gandhi is credited with bringing many development
projects for Rae Bareli like AIIMS, Railway Coach Factory, National Highways etc, thus
bringing jobs for local people. After the Modi led NDA government came to power in 2014,
Sonia Gandhi has been accusing BJP for providing step – motherly treatment to Rae Bareli
and has been vocal about providing fair treatment to the people of Rae Bareli.

Negatives Sonia Gandhi has not been keeping well and her old age and ill health has been
the major reasons for her lack of frequent visits to Rae Barely in recent past and has been
under consistent attack by BJP which is trying very hard to dethrone Sonia Gandhi from Rae
Bareli in 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

Other Leaders:

Dinesh Pratap Singh (54) is a two time MLC in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and
contested in 2019 Lok Sabha elections against Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli, receiving
highest votes ever by a BJP candidate in Rae Bareli. Dinesh Pratap Singh was a member of
INC and in 2015 he joined BJP.

Positives He played a key role in the victory of BJP in the recently concluded Jila Panchayat
Polls in Rae Bareli. He is a popular leader in the constituency and received over 3,65,000
votes contesting against Sonia Gandhi in 2019 Lok Sabha Polls.

Negatives A Lucknow Court in December 2021, directed the police to register a FIR against
Dinesh Pratap Singh and investigate further in case involving fake documents to obtain
passport. Dinesh Pratap Singh and his brother were also accused by Rae Bareli MLA Aditi
Singh in May 2019 for the deadly attack on her convoy in which she escaped with minor
injuries. It has been reported that Dinesh Pratap Singh is allegedly involved in many cases of
illegal land grabbing and does not enjoy a clean image in the constituency.

Aditi Singh (34) is a two time MLA from Rae Bareli Assembly Constituency winning the seat in
2017 on an INC ticket and in 2022 on a BJP ticket. Her father Akhilesh Kumar Singh was a 5
time MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar from multiple political parties including three times from INC.
Her husband Angad Singh Saini (INC) who was a MLA in Punjab Legislative Assembly from
2017-2022 accused INC of denying him a ticket in 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections because
his wife switched to BJP from INC.

Positives – Aditi is a popular leader in Rae Bareli Assembly Constituency and won by a margin
of more than 90,000 votes in the 2017 Assembly Elections. Inspite of Rae Bareli being an INC
bastion, Aditi was able to retain her seat in 2022 UP Assembly Elections fighting on a BJP
ticket. Aditi managed to get over 1,00,000 votes in both the 2017 and 2022 elections.

Negatives Aditi was suspended from INC in 2021 because of her alleged connections with
BJP and anti party activities and statements which had become a reason of concern for INC
at that time.
 PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY SNAPSHOT

Ajay Agarwal (56) is a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. He represented BJP in 2014 Lok
Sabha elections from Rae Bareli and contested unsuccessfully against Sonia Gandhi. He
managed to win over 1,73,000 votes against Sonia Gandhi but was denied a ticket in 2019
Lok Sabha Polls by the BJP.

Positives During his tenure in the Supreme Court, he filed public interest litigations in several
cases including the Bofors Scandal, the Taj Corridor Case and the fake stamp paper scam.
In addition to being a professional advocate, he is also a social activist and a crusader
against corruption and has filed many public interest litigation targeting corruption at the
highest level. It is believed that his PIL in Taj Corridor Case led to the fall of Mayawati
government in UP in 2003. It has been reported that Ajay Agarwal has good support from
Vaishya Community

Negatives Ajay Agarwal after being denied the ticket went on to make serious allegations
which against Narendra Modi and called the PM ungrateful for not acknowledging his
contributions during Gujarat Assembly Elections. In a letter to Modi, he claimed that BJP
would not win even 40 seats in the entire country if free and fair elections are held. In that
letter, he also criticised demonetisation and other decisions of the Modi Government. He has
not been very active in politics since 2019.

Pravesh Singh (53) was the BSP candidate in 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli. A
graduate of Lucknow University, Pravesh could not contest in 2019 Lok Sabha Polls as the SP-
BSP Alliance decided not to field a candidate from Rae Bareli against Sonia Gandhi.

Positives Pravesh Singh managed to win over 63,000 votes contesting against Sonia Gandhi.