Union Minister Smriti Irani lost the much-vaunted Amethi Lok Sabha seat to Congress’ Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin of 167196 votes. Speaking in the aftermath, she said, “I express my gratitude to all the BJP party workers and supporters, those who have worked in the service of the constituency and the party with utmost dedication and fidelity…Today, I am grateful to PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath that their governments have completed the pending works of 30 years in just 5 years. I congratulate those who win. I will continue to be in the service of the people of Amethi…”
#WATCH | Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says, ” We are going to have a meeting with our INDIA alliance partners tomorrow…we respect our alliance partners and we won’t make statements to press without asking them” pic.twitter.com/9y1lQVRGSz
— ANI (@ANI) June 4, 2024
Irani won the seat in 2019, securing 49.71% of the votes dethroning Rahul Gandhi who had managed to get 43.86% of the votes. Notably, this year, the Gandhi scion left Amethi to Sharma and took up his mother Sonia Gandhi’s mantle in Raebareli, where he is leading by over 60,000 votes. Earlier, 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.
Meanwhile, Congress, which leads the opposition INDIA bloc also gained momentum in Allahabad with a lead of over 58,000 votes. Interestingly, the last instance of the Sangam city electing a Congress MP dates back to the 1984 general elections when the iconic Amitabh Bachchan secured the seat.