Hoping for hat-trick, Sonia files nomination from Rae Bareli after 'lucky' havan

After performing a 'havan', Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed her nomination papers from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in yet another bid to reach Parliament from the family bastion in central Uttar Pradesh.

Accompanied by her son Rahul, Gandhi, 67, who had won the seat three times earlier, including in a by-election, presented three sets of nomination before district election officer Aditi Singh.

Old family loyalist Satish Sharma and her representative K L Sharma were with her when she filed the papers in which the proposers were Uma Shankar Singh (district president of Congress), Ashok Kumar Singh (former MLA) and Rajaram Tyagi (former MLA).

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Before she went into the district collectorate to file the nomination, a 'havan' was performed at the local Congress office in which Sonia and Rahul participated.

While Samajwadi Party has decided not to field anyone against her and Rahul, BJP has fielded Supreme Court lawyer Ajay Aggarwal. The AAP is yet to announce a candidate.

"The people of Rae Bareli have adopted me with immense affection and I hope they will make me victorious again in the election," she told reporters in a brief interaction after filing her nomination.

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After done with the formalities of getting into the election fray, Gandhi called on some Muslim clerics which she said had been a tradition from the days of Feroze Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.

"We are not in the game or business of polarisation," she told reporters who asked her about her meeting with Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ali Bukhari at her residence in Delhi on Tuesday during which she had said secular votes should not split in the coming election.

Gandhi, who arrived in the morning from Delhi, was given a rapturous welcome from the Fursatganj airport to the district collectorate office to which she was driven by Rahul in an SUV.

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She was welcomed with showering of rose petals all along the route with women, youth and children shouting slogans in her support.

She got down at Ghosiyana Road and other places to meet her electorate which comprised of a large number of women.

The constituency has been a Nehru-Gandhi family bastion since the 1960s. Indira Gandhi won it for the first time in 1967, taking over after the death of her husband Feroz, who was also an MP from here.

Gandhi is a three time MP from Rae Bareli, including once elected in a by-election in 2006, after she resigned over office of profit issue. In 2004 elections she shifted to Rae Bareli from neighbouring Amethi, leaving it to her son Rahul Gandhi.

In 1999, she had won from Amethi and had also defeated BJP's Sushma Swaraj from the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

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The Congress president has assets worth over Rs. 9.28 crore though she does not have a vehicle in her name.

She has movable assets worth Rs. 2.81 crore and immovable assets worth Rs. 6.47 crore, according to the affidavit submitted along with her nomination papers she filed for the Rae Bareli seat on Wednesday.

Taken with the declarations made by her in the last elections, Ms. Gandhi's assets show a six-fold increase. Congress sources said it was only because last time the declaration of value of assets was based on the book value while this time it was based on market value.

Gandhi has given a loan of Rs.9 lakh to her son Rahul and in her income tax returns for 2012-13 she had shown her income of over Rs. 14.21 lakh.

Among the movable assets, she has Rs. 85,000 in cash, Rs. 66 lakh in banks, RS. 10 lakh worth bonds and shares worth Rs. 1.90 lakh.

Ms. Gandhi has mutual funds worth Rs. 82.20 lakh, PPF amounting to Rs. 42.49 lakh, National Saving Scheme of Rs. 2.86 lakh and ornaments worth over Rs. 62 lakh.

Among the immovable assets, she has declared an ancestral property in Italy worth Rs. 19.90 lakh besides land valued at Rs. 4.86 crore in Deramandi village, another land worth Rs. 1.40 crore in Sultanpur village, the affidavit said.

Last time while filing her nomination papers from Rae Bareli in 2009, Sonia Gandhi had declared her assets over Rs.1.37 crore.