After a gap of 25 years, the Lok Sabha elections in Amethi will occur without a candidate from the influential Gandhi family. The Congress party has nominated Kishori Lal Sharma from the constituency, which has historically been a stronghold for the party. Rahul Gandhi, who won three times from Amethi before losing to BJP’s Smriti Irani, will now contest from Rae Bareli.
In response to this development, Smriti Irani, who famously defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, remarked that the Congress party has conceded its defeat in the region. She said, “No member of the Gandhi family contesting from Amethi in itself is an indication that Congress has accepted its defeat from Amethi even before the elections.”
Amethi has long been a bastion for the Congress party since its formation in 1967. Rahul Gandhi represented the constituency from 2004 to 2019, following in the footsteps of his mother Sonia Gandhi.
The last time a non-Gandhi contested from Amethi was in 1998 when Satish Sharma, a close associate of the Gandhi family, ran for the seat but lost to the BJP’s Sanjaya Sinh. Sonia Gandhi then contested and won from Amethi in 1999, securing a significant victory margin.
In 2004, Sonia Gandhi shifted to Rae Bareli, allowing Rahul Gandhi to take over Amethi.
Amethi’s political history includes Congress’s Vidya Dhar Bajpai as its first MP. In 1977, the Janata Party’s Ravindra Pratap Singh won the seat, but Sanjay Gandhi reclaimed it in the next election. After Sanjay Gandhi’s death, Rajiv Gandhi won the by-elections and remained the MP until his assassination in 1991.
Satish Sharma won the seat twice after Rajiv Gandhi’s death, in 1991 and 1996. In 2014, Rahul Gandhi defeated Smriti Irani by a significant margin. However, in 2019, Smriti Irani emerged victorious against Rahul Gandhi with a substantial margin of 55,000 votes.
In Rae Bareli, Rahul Gandhi will face BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh, who lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 elections.
Voting in Amethi and Rae Bareli is scheduled for May 20.
