Amid row over Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad pick, list of top leaders who contested from more than 1 seat

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who filed his nomination from Kerala's Wayanad as the second seat beside Amethi, is not the first top politician contesting the Lok Sabha elections from more than one seat. Even though the BJP claimed that Rahul Gandhi's picked Wayanad, a Hindu majority district in the southern state of Kerala, as he was afraid of losing from Amethi, the saffron party ignored the fact that its own top leaders, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PM Modi, also contested from more than one seat. While Narendra Modi fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi and Vadodara, Vajpayee had the 1957 general elections from three seats and lost two of them. Not just that, Vajpayee had contested from more than one seat in 1962, 1991 and 1996 as well. Top leaders from other regional parties, including three-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, INLD founder Devi Lal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and BSP president Mayawati, had also contested the Lok Sabha polls from two or more seats.

Below is the list of prominent leaders who contested Lok Sabha elections from two or more seats:

1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee: 

1957 Lok Sabha elections: Won Balrampur and lost Mathura and Lucknow.

1962 Lok Sabha elections: Lost Balrampur and Lucknow.

1991 Lok Sabha elections: Won Vidisha and Lucknow but retained Lucknow.

1996 Lok Sabha elections: Won Lucknow and Gandhinagar but retained Lucknow.

2. Indira Gandhi: 

1980 Lok Sabha elections: Won Rae Bareli and Medak but retained Rae Bareli.

3. Devi Lal: 

1989 Lok Sabha elections: Won Sikar, Rohtak and lost Ferozepur. Retained Sikar.

4. Kanshi Ram:

1989 Lok Sabha elections: Lost Amethi and East Delhi.

1991 Lok Sabha elections: Lost East Delhi and won Etawah.

1996 Lok Sabha elections: Won Hoshiarpur and lost Phulpur.

5. Mayawati:

1989 Lok Sabha elections: Lost Bijnor and Haridwar.

1991 Lok Sabha elections: Lost Bijnor, Haridwar and Bulandshahr.

6. Lal Krishna Advani: 

1991 Lok Sabha elections: Won Gandhinagar and New Delhi but retained Gandhinagar.

7. PV Narasimha Rao: 

1996 Lok Sabha elections: Won Berhampur and Nandyal but retained Berhampur.

8. Sonia Gandhi: 

1999 Lok Sabha elections: Won Rae Bareli and Bellary but retained Rae Bareli.

9. Mulayam Singh Yadav: 

1999 Lok Sabha elections: Won Sambhal and Kannauj but retained Sambhal.

2014 Lok Sabha elections: Won Azamgarh and Manipuri seats but retained Azamgarh.

10. Lalu Prasad: 

2004 Lok Sabha elections: Won Chapra and Madhepura but retained Chapra.

2009 Lok Sabha elections: Won Saran and lost Pataliputra.

11. Akhilesh Yadav: 

2009 Lok Sabha elections: Won Kannauj and Firozabad but retained Kannauj.

12. Narendra Modi: 

2014 Lok Sabha elections: Won Varanasi and Vadodara but retained Varanasi.

13. Rahul Gandhi

2019 Lok Sabha elections: The Congress president has announced to contest the general elections from two seats - traditional stronghold Amethi and Kerala's Wayanad.