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Rae Bareli
One of the most popular district of Uttar Pradesh, Rae Bareli (latitude 26 degrees 13 minutes North and longitude 81 degrees 14 minutes East) is located 82 km southeast of the state capital Lucknow. The district is nationally famous, especially because of its rich political history.
Voter Demographic
The Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency presents a unique demographic profile. With a literacy rate of 57.72 per cent, it is predominantly rural, with 89.3 per cent of its population (approximately 1,516,226 voters) residing in rural areas, while only 10.7 per cent (about 181,676 voters) live in an urban setting, as per data collected from political consultant Chanakyaa. The constituency has a significant Scheduled Caste population, comprising 30.3 per cent (around 514,464 voters) of the electorate, while Scheduled Tribes form a small minority at 0.1 per cent (approximately 1,698 voters). As of the 2019 Parliament Election, Rae Bareli had a total of 1,697,902 registered voters spread across 1,883 polling booths. Voter turnout has shown some variation, with 56.1 per cent participation in the 2019 Parliament Election, a slight decrease from the 61 per cent turnout observed in the 2017 Assembly Election.
Voters
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections 1,039,219 people voted in the constituency, the Rae Bareli LS constituency polls were held on May 20 in Phase -V. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), there were approximately 16,97,902 voters in Rae Bareli in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Political History
Known as the pocket borough of the Gandhi family, the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat has mostly been with the Congress party ever since it came into existence in 1952 as it didn't win the seat only on three occasions out of twenty. Notably, the constituency has been represented by famous personalities of Indian politics like Indira Gandhi, Feroze Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and others. Since 2004, Sonia Gandhi has been the Rae Bareli MP but in early 2024, she tendered her resignation and decided to take the Rajya Sabha route from Rajasthan.
In 2019, Sonia Gandhi won the polls by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes but the political analysts opine that the victory margin has considerably reduced over the past two decades, especially in the 2006 byelection when the former Congress President won by a margin of over 4 lakh votes. Even in the 2022 UP Assembly election, Congress didn't manage to win a single constituency that lies in the area of Rae Bareli Parliamentary seat. In fact, it was the Samajwadi Party that won four out of the five Assembly seats which came under the Rae Bareli LS seat.
Incidentally, it was the 1971 Rae Bareli LS polls in which the Allahabad High Court found the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices and barred her from holding any office for a period of six years. However, Indira escaped the verdict as she imposed Emergency in the country. Later, in 1977 LS polls, Indira lost from the Rae Bareli seat marking the only occasion of a Gandhi family member getting defeated from here.
Indian National Congress candidate Rahul Gandhi won the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat with 66.17 per cent vote share, recently he was also chosen to be the Leader of Opposition in the lower house of Parliament. Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh managed to secure 28.64 per cent of vote share or 297,619 votes in the constituency.
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