Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will not be campaigning for the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled on September 13.
Party sources, however, downplayed it saying the Congress president, by convention, never campaigns for bypolls.
The seats going for polls include Noida, lucknow East, Saharanpur Nagar, Bijnore, Thakurdwara, Nighasan, Hamirpur, Charkhan, Sirathu, Balha, Rohaniya and Sirathu as all the sitting MlAs are representing their areas in Parliament. The process of filing nominations has started and the last date is August 27. AICC sources said senior party members will be campaigning for the candidates and the organisation is yet to decide on any other big names other than the high command.
In the lok Sabha polls the party could not register win only on lok Sabha seats Rae Bariely and Amethi, both represented by mother-son duo. Rahul had to face a tough fight from BJP candidate Smriti Irani and that she has already started making inroads to dent Rahul’s prospects in his pocket borough.
An AICC office-bearer said that Rahul had once campaigned in a lok Sabha by-poll in favour of party candidate Raj Babbar in 2009, where he was fielded against Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. He was, however, not the party vice-president then.
Source said Rahul will however campaign for the party and alliance partners during the Assembly State elections scheduled couple of months later and he will extensively campaign in Maharashtra.