New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS): UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Congress bastion of Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, party sources said on Tuesday, seeking to end speculation of her retirement.

"She will be contesting the polls from Rae Bareli," said the source.

There is speculation of Sonia retiring from active politics on health grounds and making the way for daughter and newly appointed general Secretary Priyanka Gandhi to contest from Rae Bareli which Sonia has been winning since 1999.

The 72-year-old leader had to cut short her much-publicised "road show" in August 2016 in Varanasi after she fell sick.

In May 2018, she had gone abroad for her annual medical checkup, accompanied by son and Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Her last public rally was in Hyderabad in November last during the Assembly polls in Telangana, while recently she addressed the Congress Parliamentary Party's general body meeting in the national capital.