Lok Sabha elections 2019: Accepting orders by Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priya Dutt takes a U-turn; set to contest polls from Mumbai North Central seat

In a major development ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Priya Dutt, the former Congress MP from Maharashtra's Mumbai North Central constituency, has taken a U-turn, planning to contest in the Lok Sabha 2019 polls after accepting the orders of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Mumbai North Central constituency is currently represented by Bharatiya Janata Party's MP Poonam Mahajan, who defeated Congress MP Priya Dutt in 2014.

A month ago, she had written to the party president stating that she will be contesting in the upcoming 2019 polls. Daughter of late actor and Congress leader Sunil Dutt had reasoned her decision to not contest the polls to be wanting to devote the time to her family.

However, as per reports, Priya Dutt was upset with the infight in the Congress rank in Mumbai especially in her constituency which led her to take the decision to not contest elections.

However, she changed her decision after interaction with Rahul Gandhi and took the decision to accept the nomination from Mumbai North Central constituency.

READ: Lok Sabha 2019 Election Dates: Counting To Be Held On 23 May - Here's The Full Schedule For The 2019 Parliamentary Polls For All Phases As Announced By The Election Commission

Meanwhile, Maharashtra is all set to go into polls in four phases beginning from April 11 - Mumbai will be casting their votes in 4th phase of Lok Sabha 2019 elections on April 29.

Earlier in January, the Congress and NCP had ironed out how they will split seats of Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

As per senior NCP leader Praful Patel, the Rahul Gandhi- and Sharad Pawar-led parties had each agreed to contest 20 seats each out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. 

In the 2014 polls, the Congress contested in 26 seats while the NCP fielded candidates in 21, with one remaining seat being left to a smaller alliance partner. However, Congress only won two seats while the NCP won four, as a result of which the NCP presented the argument that it should be the senior alliance partner in 2019. 

READ: 2019 ELECTIONS: Congress-NCP Decide On Formula To Contest 40 Of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha Seats, Even As BJP-Shiv Sena Alliance Remains In The Air. Details Here