Congress Picks Kishori Lal Sharma For UP's Amethi Against BJP's Smriti Irani| Who Is He?

Ending all the suspense and speculations, Congress on Friday finally announced the Amethi and Raebareli nominees for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. From Amethi, a longtime aide of the Gandhi family, Kishori Lal Sharma has been fielded while the Raebareli lok sabha seat went to Rahul Gandhi. Both of them have already filed nominations today.

From Amethi, Sharma will contest the Lok Sabha polls against BJP's Smriti Irani.

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Thanking the top leaders of Congress after his nomination, Kishori Lal Sharma said, "I would like to thank Khargeji, Sonia ji, Rahul ji, and Priyanka ji for giving a "chotte" karyakarta like me an opportunity to contest from a seat that is their family bastion. I will work hard. I have been working in this constituency for the last 40 years."

Who is Kishori Lal Sharma?

A longtime close aide of the Gandhi family, Kishori Lal Sharma originally hails from Punjab's Ludhiana. Back in 1987, he stepped into Raebareli and Amethi along with Rajiv Gandhi. In the absence of Gandhis, Sharma was bestowed with the responsibility of the two key constituencies.

Earlier, he frequently visited Amethi and Raebareli alongside accompanying Sonia Gandhi to Amethi when she entered politics and visited the constituency for the first time. In fact it is often said that he played a key role in Sonia Gandhi's first win from Amethi in 1999.

Sharma is also known to take care of the Amethi and Raebareli constituencies after Sonia Gandhi vacated the Amethi seat for Rahul Gandhi and contested from Raebareli.

Amethi and Raebareli will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.