'Jald Hi Karni Padegi': Rahul Gandhi's Response to 'When Are You Getting Married' at Raebareli Rally

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was caught in a peculiar situation on Monday where he had to answer the most asked question – When is he getting married? Gandhi, who initially tried to avoid the question, on the insistence of his sister and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was accompanying him, said, “Ab jald hi karni padegi (will have to get married soon now).”

The situation unfolded during a political rally which Rahul Gandhi, Congress candidate from Raebareli Lok Sabha Constituency for 2024 Lok Sabha Poll, and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, addressed in Uttar Pradesh’s Bachhrawan town of Raebareli district. While the rally was on, a girl from the crowd, during an interactive session, asked him when is he getting married.

Stumbled over the question, the Gandhi scion initially tried to avoid it and began admiring her sister for the hard work and pain she was taking for her brother. “So far I have done around 70 to 80 meetings. But this one was different, I have never seen so much excitement among the people. I am overwhelmed and it feels like I am at home. And I must mention that this is my sister, she is campaigning for me, shedding her blood and sweat for me,” said Gandhi while calling his sister on the dais.

However, Priyanka, who smiled at her brother’s attempt to avoid the personal but much anticipated question, held his hand and insisted that he should answer the girl first. The Gandhi scion smiled and said, “batao bhai kya sawaal hai (Now tell me what’s the question).” The girl repeated her question, to which Gandhi greeted the girl with a broad smile and said, “ab jald hi karni padegi (will have to do it soon now).” People at the rally and the Congress leaders on the dais burst into laughter over Gandhi’s response as he blushed.

Apart from fielding Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli, the Congress has fielded loyalist KL Sharma from Amethi, keeping Priyanka as well as her husband Robert Vadra out of the electoral contest. Rahul represented Amethi from 2004 until 2019, but he lost the seat to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019. He had contested Wayanad in 2019 as a second seat and won it to retain his MP status. He will face Congress defector and three-time MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh of BJP in Raebareli, which will go to polls on May 20 in the fifth phase. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi won the constituency, bagging 5,34,918 votes. Her closest rival, Dinesh Pratap Singh, put up a formidable challenge, gathering 3,67,740 votes.

Raebareli has been Congress’s stronghold since the first general elections in 1952 when the seat was held by Feroze Gandhi, the husband of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and son-in-law of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. After he died in 1960, the Congress fielded RP Singh in the by-elections and retained the seat. Post this, Sonia Gandhi picked Raebareli, a seat she won for four consecutive terms. In February 2024, when Gandhi announced her decision to not contest the next Lok Sabha elections, she wrote a letter to the Raebareli electorate, who supported her for two decades. “My family in Delhi is incomplete; it’s you all in Raebareli who complete it,” wrote the former Congress president. She added that her family’s ties with Raebareli run deep and she received it as a “saubhagya (good fortune)” from her in-laws.

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