Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won both the seats he contested from both Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala in the 18th Lok Sabha Elections.

But now as he won both sears, what happens next for an MP in such a situation?

It is legal for candidates to run from two Lok Sabha seats in India. A by-election will be held in the vacated constituency if a candidate wins both. They are required to vacate one seat within fourteen days of the result declaration according to the Representation of the People Act, 1951's.

In Indian elections, running for two seats is a typical occurrence. And Rahul Gandhi is not the first MP to do so.

In the past, during the Lok Sabha elections of 1996, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ran from the seats of Gandhinagar and Lucknow. There had to be a by-election in Gandhinagar since he had won both seats but decided to hold onto the one in Lucknow.

Similarly, Sonia Gandhi, the former president of the Congress, ran for office in 1999 from Bellary, Karnataka, and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood for office in the 2014 general elections from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and Vadodara, Gujarat. Despite winning both seats, he decided to keep Varanasi.

A petition challenging Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 was filed in 2023 by counsel Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. Upadhyay argued and attempted to declare this provision unlawful. The petition demanded action from the Election Commission and the Center to stop candidates from concurrently competing for the same post in several constituencies.