Union Minister Smriti Irani, who unseated Congress’s Rahul Gandhi from his family bastion Amethi, is trailing in the massive prestige battle raging there this year. Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma is leading by a margin of 1,43,960 votes in the Lok Sabha election as of 4:36 pm, as reported by Hindustan Times. Irani had won the seat in 2019, securing 49.71% of the votes while Gandhi, her opponent, managed to get 43.86% votes.
Notably, this year, the Gandhi scion left Amethi to Sharma and chose to take up his mother Sonia Gandhi’s mantle in Raebareli, where he is leading by over 60,000 votes. Speaking to NDTV, Irani had claimed that Gandhi, who had represented Amethi for three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2019, opted not to contest the seat because it would have been challenging.
