Rahul Gandhi Suffers Embarrassing Loss in Congress Stronghold Amethi Lok Sabha Constituency, Congratulates Smriti Irani For Her Victory
Interestingly, BJP's Smriti Irani had contested against Gandhi in the previous Lok Sabha Elections as well. She had lost to Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections with a margin of about one lakh votes.
New Delhi, May 23: The Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, considered to be a bastion of the Indian National Congress (INC) party since elections were first held here in the year 1967, for the first time will go to a candidate from a party other than Congress since 1999. The Congress party President Rahul Gandhi has been the Member of Parliament from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat from the year 2004. However, Gandhi looks set to lose the seat to BJP's Smriti Irani as he is trailing by 12,000 votes. With this loss, Gandhi becomes the first person in the Nehru-Gandhi family to lose the Amethi Lok Sabha seat. Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Results LIVE News Updates.
Interestingly, BJP's Smriti Irani had contested against Gandhi in the previous Lok Sabha Elections as well. She had lost to Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections with a margin of about one lakh votes. However this time, Irani managed to take away the seat from under the nose of Gandhi, causing further embarrassment for the Congress, which has faced its second straight loss in Lok Sabha Elections 2019, by a huge margin. Amethi Lok Sabha Constituency in Uttar Pradesh Live Results 2019: Leading Candidates From The Seat, 2014 Winning MP And More.
Rahul Gandhi himself has represented the seat for three straight terms, and was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi Lok Sabha seat in the year 2004. Before Rahul, his mother and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had represented the constituency from the year 1999-2004.
The seat was also held by Rahul Gandhi's father Rajiv Gandhi and and his uncle Sanjay Gandhi in the past. Vidya Dhar Bajpai of the Indian National Congress was the first Member of Parliament (MP) from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat and served as an MP from 1967-1977, before the seat was wrested away by Ravindra Pratap Singh of the Janata Party, in the year 1977.
However after 1981, the seat continued to be a Congress stronghold with the exception of Sanjay Sinh from 1998 to 1999 of the Bharatiya Janata Party representing the seat, before losing it to Sonia Gandhi in 1999. Since then, for two decades, Amethi continued to be the bastion of the Congress party. But with Rahul losing the Amethi seat to Smriti Irani, it may well mark the beginning of a new chapter in Amethi's history which for long has been associated with the Congress party.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 23, 2019 06:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).