Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he would do the party’s bidding when asked if he would attempt regaining the former pocket borough of Amethi, keeping the suspense alive on the Congress face for the constituency.

Billing the query as a “BJP question”, Rahul said it is for the party to decide. “Whatever the party decides, I will abide by that decision. Such decisions are taken by the CEC (central election committee) of our party,” he said. This is the first time since the elections were announced that Rahul responded to a question on contesting from Amethi.

Rahul was addressing a media conference with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Ghaziabad. This was their first joint event of this election which came on the last day of campaigning for seats in western Uttar Pradesh that will vote on Friday.

Rahul and the Congress have been non-committal thus far on whether he would try and wrest the seat from the BJP. The Congress has announced candidates for 15 of the 17 seats it is contesting in UP in alliance with the SP. The two seats yet to be decided are Amethi and Rae Bareli, the lone family seat the Gandhis won in 2019.

Though contesting Amethi is seen as an uphill task given the energy and resources that will be invested by the BJP to ensure Rahul’s defeat, many in the INDIA bloc feel it will be a morale booster for the Opposition during the campaign.

Recently, Rahul’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra had claimed that the people of Amethi want him to represent the constituency. There is similar suspense over Rae Bareli, which Sonia Gandhi recently vacated to move to the Rajya Sabha. The question now arises whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest from this pocket borough or whether the Nehru-Gandhi family would cede their last stronghold.

This time, the election schedule is such that the candidate for Amethi can be announced after Wayanad polls on April 26 with the rest of Kerala. Elections for the fifth phase of polling, including in Amethi and Rae Bareli, will be notified on April 26, giving the Congress ample time to decide the candidates for the seats.

The possibility of Rahul contesting from Amethi is not something Wayanad is unaware of. The possibility of him abandoning Wayanad for Amethi is not yet a big issue in the Kerala constituency partly because not many see him emerging victorious given the electoral dynamics in Uttar Pradesh. If his contesting Amethi helps the INDIA bloc, it is something his supporters in Wayanad will be happy with.

In 2019, Rahul lost Amethi to Union minister Smriti Irani by 55,120 votes after three successive wins from a seat held by his father Rajiv Gandhi and uncle Sanjay Gandhi.