Rahul Gandhi leading in Rae Bareli

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is leading by more than 11,000 votes at the moment in Rae Bareli, a seat in the Uttar Pradesh that is effectively a family pocket borough, Al Jazeera reports.

Gandhi had lost in 2019 to the BJP’s Smriti Irani in nearby Amethi, a seat he had held in the Lok Sabha since 2014. Ahead of the 2024 vote, the Congress faced questions over whether Gandhi would contest against Irani again.

He chose to instead contest from Rae Bareli, where his mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is the outgoing member of parliament. Sonia has said she is retiring from electoral politics, though she is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament.