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Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), May 6 - Abiding by the Election Commision's directions, Rahul Gandhi Saturday drove out of the boundaries of the Rae Bareli constituency from where her mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is seeking re-election in Monday's polls.
The young MP's move came in the wake of an Election Commission circular of Friday that said: 'Any public representative who is not a voter in Rae Bareli and is provided with a state security cannot stay in the constituency after close of campaigning on May 6.'
Rahul Gandhi was not planning to return to the constituency till the polling was over Monday, party sources said.
Since he represents the neighbouring Amethi Lok Sabha seat, he had no choice but to leave Rae Bareli. Congress sources said that he would continue to camp in Amethi.
Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress president's daughter and her election agent, arrived here late Friday evening to take over from her brother who had been running the show for nearly a fortnight.
Priyanka Gandhi took to the task by distributing polling kits to party workers entrusted with the charge of polling stations. Her husband Robert Vadra was also accompanying her.
Sonia Gandhi had resigned from the Lok Sabha in March following the controversy over the eligibility of MPs to hold any office of profit. She later resigned from the chairpersonship of the National Advisory Council, and sought a re-election.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded its former Uttar Pradesh unit chief Vinay Katiyar against her.
Meanwhile, at least two dozen ministers of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government also continued to camp in the constituency, apparently in violation of the circular.
Having shed their official vehicles, these ministers were moving around all over in this largely rural constituency in cognito, and even their security personnel were apparently told to give up their khaki uniform to avoid identification.
Hundreds of vehicles could be seen zipping across the otherwise quiet roads of this sprawling constituency. Samajwadi Party flags, fluttering atop them until earlier Saturday, were discreetly pulled out to skip the poll panel scanners.
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