Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union minister Smriti Irani lost Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi Lok Sabha constituency to veteran Congress leader Kishori Lal Sharma, data from the Election Commission showed.
Sharma won by a margin of 1,67,196 having secured 5,39,228 of the 9,80,671 total votes. Irani, the Union minister for women and child development, was at 3,72,032 votes.
The Amethi seat has been a stronghold of the Gandhi family for decades. The seat was held by Rahul Gandhi from 2004 to 2019, when he was defeated by Irani. She was renominated by the BJP in this election.
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Irani’s victory against Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 general election was seen as a major political upset at the time. The constituency was earlier represented by former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, the late former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the late Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi.
This time, Rahul Gandhi chose to contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli, a seat held by Sonia Gandhi since 2004. This decision underscored the significance of Rae Bareli and Amethi for the Gandhi family and Congress. In February, Sonia Gandhi moved to the Rajya Sabha and announced that she would not contest the Lok Sabha elections because of her age and health concerns.
The Congress is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party as part of the Opposition INDIA bloc.
Rahul Gandhi is also contesting the polls from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency, where he has been an MP since 2019.
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