Rahul Gandhi to keep Raebareli seat, Priyanka Gandhi to contest elections from Wayanad

New Delhi, June 17: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will keep his Raebareli seat while his sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will make her electoral debut from the Wayanad seat, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced on Monday.

"Rahul Gandhi won two Lok Sabha seats but as per the law, he has to vacate one seat. Rahul Gandhi will keep the Raebareli seat and vacate the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat," Kharge said addressing the media outside his residence.

He further announced that Congress General Secretary Vadra would contest the elections from Wayanad.

"We have decided that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will fight elections from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat," the Congress chief added.

Priyanka Gandhi is finally making her electoral debut from the Wayanad seat after Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat by keeping the family bastion of the Raebareli seat.

The decision came after top party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, general secretaries KC Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi held a meeting at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to decide which Lok Sabha seat Rahul Gandhi would retain.

Rahul Gandhi, who contested from two seats -- Rae Bareli and Wayanad, won both constituencies by huge margins.

Rahul Gandhi won the seat of Rae Bareli by defeating BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh by a margin of 3,90,030 votes. Gandhi had contested this seat aiming to save the lone bastion of the party in the state after he lost Amethi in 2019.

The Congress leader also won the seat of Wayanad, which paved his entry to the Lok Sabha in 2019. He defeated Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate Annie Raja by 3,64,422 votes.