• Source:JND
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Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Thursday announced that she will not contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections due to health issues. “Due to health and increasing age, I will not contest the next Lok Sabha elections. After this decision, I will not get the opportunity to serve you directly, but, certainly, my heart and soul will always be with you," Gandhi wrote in her letter to the people of Raebareli. 

In her letter addressed to the people of her constituency- Rae Bareli, the former Congress chief thanked them for their support.

Gandhi who represented Raebareli in the Lok Sabha since 2004, also narrated in her letter how people of her constituency welcomed her after she had come there after losing her husband (Rajiv Gandhi) and mother-in-law (former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi).

"Roots of our family in Rae Bareli are very deep. I know you will stand by me and my family in future just as in the past," Gandhi's letter to people to Raebareli read. 

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"The close relationship with Rae Bareli is very old. Our family's ties with Rae Bareli run very deep. In the first Lok Sabha elections held after independence, you made my father-in-law Shri Feroze Gandhi win from here and sent him to Delhi. After him, you made my mother-in-law Mrs Indira Gandhi your own. From then till now, this series has continued with love and enthusiasm through the ups and downs and difficult paths of life, and our faith in it has become stronger," Gandhi wrote in her letter. 

Sonia Gandhi’s announcement came after she filed her nomination papers from Rajasthan on Wednesday for the Rajya Sabha polls. She was accompanied by her two children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi when she filed her nomination papers in Jaipur. This is the first time when Sonia is set to enter the Upper House from Rajasthan. 

The Congress announced ten candidates on Wednesday, including party treasurer Ajay Maken from Karnataka, noted advocate Abhishek Singhvi from the lone seat in Himachal Pradesh, and Renuka Chowdhury from Telangana.