NEW DELHI — Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, setting the stage for a high-profile, three-cornered contest in the family fortress Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi's mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi was by his side when he filed the nomination papers at the Amethi collectorate this afternoon. Challenged by BJP's crowd-puller, actor Smriti Irani, and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) poet-turned-politician Kumar Vishwas, the two-time MP Gandhi arguably faces the toughest electoral battle of his political career. Amethi goes to the polls on May 7. Meanwhile, Gandhi said on Saturday that he did not make any “personal remark” on Narendra Modi, after controversy over his comments on the affidavit file by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in which he admitted that he is married. “I didn't make any personal remark, just stated the facts. I just said that he (Modi) has mentioned something not previously mentioned in his affidavits,” Gandhi said after filing his nomination from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. Prior to filing his nominations, Rahul Gandhi undertook a 42-km-long roadshow from Amhart in Sultanpur to Gauriganj in Amethi and was accompanied by sister Priyanka Vadra and her husband Robert Vadra. Rahul's cousin Varun Gandhi is the BJP candidate from Sultanpur. He is pitted against Congress nominee Amita Singh, wife of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who had won from the seat in 2009. The event evoked curiosity as this is for the first time Rahul organized such a political campaign from a constituency where another Gandhi family member if fighting against a Congress candidate. Amita along with husband also received Gandhi at the airport in Sultanpur and accompanied him in the roadshow. Varun, son of Maneka and Sanjay Gandhi, had contested the last Lok Sabha seat from Pilibhit and won by over three lakh votes. After shifting to Sultanpur seat, he has been reaching out to people telling them that Sultanpur was the ‘karmbhoomi' of his late father. When asked about BJP rival Smriti Irani, Priyanka Gandhi said, “Everyone who comes to Amethi is welcome. There is an arrangement in democracy for everyone to contest the elections”. When asked whether she expects Rahul to win by bigger margin, she replied “it will all be known later”.
