India election 2019: latest updates

Rahul Gandhi, president of India’s main opposition Congress Party, has filed his nomination to contest the upcoming elections from the district of Wayanad in southern Kerala state.

Throngs of Congress supporters gathered outside the district collectorate office in Kalpetta to greet Gandhi as he arrived there with his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who took on a formal role within the party earlier this year.

In January, she was put in charge of Congress’ election campaign in a critical battleground: the eastern half of Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest and politically most significant state, with a population of some 200 million people.

Following the submission of the paperwork, the siblings took part in a road show and were seen waving at supporters.

Last week, the Congress announced Gandhi would contest from the Kerala district in addition to Amethi constituency in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which he has represented for three consecutive terms since 2004, his first election.

Amethi is considered the home constituency of the Gandhi-Nehru political dynasty. In the 2014 elections, Gandhi won the seat by with a margin of over 100,000 votes. He's the son of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. His grandmother, Indira, was India’s first female leader, and his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the country’s founding prime minister.

The BJP’s Smriti Irani, India’s Minister for Textiles, is Gandhi’s main opposition there.

Irani was in Amethi earlier Wednesday. Speaking to reporters, she described Gandhi’s decision to contest from a second constituency as a “betrayal”.

“For 15 years, Amethi had to deal with the same MP. This MP ruined Amethi’s governance. The BJP has given me responsibility to serve Amethi and make it stronger. That person who enjoyed power with Amethi’s help for 15 years is now disowning Amethi to run from another constituency. Amethi’s people will not tolerate this disrespect and betrayal,” Irani said.

Modi on Monday attacked Congress for hurting Hindu sentiments, saying that some leaders have taken refuge in places where the “minority is majority” to escape “Hindu anger”, in a veiled reference to Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of running from minority-dominated Wayanad.

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