Raebareli:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi arrived in Raebareli on a chartered flight this morning to file his nomination, hours after his party ended the suspense on Amethi and Raebareli, two key seats that are a prestige battle for the party.

Their plane landed at the Fursatgunj airfield. Videos from the airfield showed the Congress leader in his iconic white half t-shirt, which had become his identity during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, flanked by his mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and brother-in-law Robert Vadra.

Top Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot and KC Venugopal too accompanied the Gandhi family. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy have also left for Raebareli on a special flight from Hyderabad to attend Mr Gandhi’s nomination filing.

Read | In Amethi, Congress Pins Its Hope On A Non-Gandhi After 26 Years

Today is the last day for filing nominations for the Phase 5 elections when Raebareli goes to polls. Amethi, too, will vote in this phase on May 20, for which the Congress has chosen a non-Gandhi candidate (KL Sharma) after 26 years.

Rahul Gandhi will hold a roadshow in Raebareli before he files his nomination around noon, news agency ANI reported citing party sources. Hectic preparations are already on at the Raebareli party office to welcome Mr Gandhi and others.

In Raebareli, Mr Gandhi will face an ex-colleague who had defected to the BJP, Dinesh Pratap Singh.

Mr Gandhi also contested his Wayanad seat, which he had won last time, in the second phase (April 26). The other contenders in this Kerala seat were the state BJP chief K Surendran and CPM’s Annie Raja.

Read | Behind Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘No’ To Poll Fight, A Recurring BJP Taunt: Sources

Like Amethi, the Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency is also crucial for the Congress, and has been won by Sonia Gandhi five times since 2004, including a bypoll, until she moved to the Rajya Sabha this year.

Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi represented it thrice while her husband Feroz Gandhi won it twice in 1952 and 1957.

His party’s decision to field him from a second seat has also drawn the BJP’s jibes, which has accused him of “running away from Wayanad” after “accepting defeat in Amethi.”