Rae Bareli

 city, taluka headquarter, district headquarter

Tehsil Raebareli, District Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, Bharat
रायबरेली Raebareli رائے بریلی also Rae Bareli or Rai Bareli
The town is situated at the bank of the Sai River, 82 km (50 miles) southeast of Lucknow. It possesses many architectural features, chief of which is a strong and spacious fort erected in 1403. The fort was constructed of bricks 2 ft long by 1 ft (0.30 m) thick and 1.5 ft (0.46 m) wide (60 cm by 30 cm by 45 cm). Among other ancient buildings are the magnificent palace and tomb of nawab Jahan Khan, governor in the time of Shah Jahan, and four fine mosques.The most important town within the district is Lalganj which is the proposed site for the Railway Coach Factory. The factory is already underway with construction activities in full swing and locals expect to gain economically from it. The factory is expected to generate over 10,000 Jobs. District Rae Bareli is located in the heart land of famous AWADH region which was the part ancient Koshala kingdom.This town has close proximity to present state capital Lucknow which is just 70 KM away. The district of Rae Bareli was created by the British in 1858, and is named after its headquarters town. Tradition has it that the town was founded by the Bhars and was known as Bharauli or Barauli. Over the course of time, the name was changed to Bareli. The prefix "Rae" represents "Rai" the common title of the Kayasths who were masters of the town for a considerable period of time. In the early 20th century, the town was an important center of trade, and muslin and cotton weaving. Its population was 15,880 in 1901. The city and the district became famous as a political bastion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. After independence, the Rae Bareli constituency was won by Jawaharlal Nehru's son-in-law Feroze Gandhi. After Feroze Gandhi's death in 1960, the constituency was won in 1967 by his wife Indira Gandhi (daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru), who went on to become the first woman Prime Minister of India. In 1977, after Indira Gandhi's election from Rae Bareli was revoked by the Allahabad High Court for using state machinery in the elections, she held on to power by having the President declare a national emergency. After Indira's death in 1984 there was no one from the family to contest from here until the 2004 Parliament Elections, when Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Indira's son, Rajiv, was elected as MP from Rae Bareli with a record breaking margin. In the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, 2007, her daughter Priyanka Gandhi, while not fighting elections herself, proved to be a powerful force in gaining large majorities for Congressmen in the area. In the 2009 elections Sonia again won from this seat.

Since 1967, when Indira Gandhi selected Rae Bareli as her constituency, Rae Bareli became the nucleus of the Indian National Congress and Indian Politics. Once in 1976, the cabinet meeting was held in Rae Bareli instead of state capital. The district became the pilgrimage of Congress workers and all the congress workers had a desire to come to this pilgrimage before every election. During this period Rae Bareli got bumper publicity in the national and International press.

Being the constituency of the Prime Minister, the campaigning was much expensive, and because of that local and common leaders did not dare to fight the parliamentary elections. Being the Prime Minister, she contested election from here in 1967, 1971 and in 1977 and being a member of opposition party she contested in 1980. In 1977 she was defeated by Raj Narain of Janta Party as after Emergency, there was a "JANTA LEHAR" all around the nation. In 1980 she contested from MEDAK (Andhra Pradesh) also, and after winning from both the places, she left the Rae Bareli seat. Arun Nehru of Congress was elected in the by-elections.