Ghaziabad, 17 April

Amid intense speculation over whether he would contest the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he will follow "whatever order" he gets from his party.

Gandhi made the remarks at a joint press conference here with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Asked whether he would contest from Amethi besides Wayanad, Gandhi said, "On Amethi, the party will decide. Whatever order I get, I will abide by that." "In our party, these decisions are taken in the CEC (Central Election Committee) meeting," he stressed.

Polling will be held in Wayanad on 26 April while Amethi goes to polls on 20 May.

There is speculation that besides his declared seat of Wayanad in Kerala, Gandhi might also contest the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi, a seat he represented for three straight terms earlier, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli, a seat that was previously held by her mother Sonia Gandhi. Both seats are considered bastions of the Gandhi family and the local units of the Congress have demanded that the two scions of the family contest from there.

Gandhi won the Amethi seat in three consecutive Lok Sabha elections from 2004. BJP leader Smriti Irani wrested the seat in 2019. Gandhi, who contested from both Amethi and Wayanad in 2019, had won the elections from Wayanad. He has been renominated by the Congress from the constituency.

The Congress has forged an alliance with the SP in Uttar Pradesh and is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be held in seven phases starting 19 April. The counting of votes will be taken up on 4 June.