Amethi, long synonymous with the Gandhi family, is set for a historic election as, for the first time in 25 years, a Gandhi will not contest from this hallowed Lok Sabha seat. Since its inception as a constituency in 1967, Amethi has been under the aegis of Congress for an impressive 31 years.
However, the 2019 general elections saw a seismic shift when the Congress bastion was overrun by BJP's Smriti Irani who defeated Rahul Gandhi by a substantial margin of over 55,000 votes. In the upcoming 2024 elections, Rahul Gandhi will compete from the neighboring constituency of Rae Bareli, while Amethi ushers in a new era with Gandhi family confidante, Kishori Lal Sharma, taking the electoral plunge.
Kishori Lal Sharma has been a key figure in managing two prestigious constituencies on behalf of the Gandhi family. The last non-Gandhi candidate fielded here was in 1998 when Sanjay Singh of the BJP defeated rival Satish Sharma, a trusted associate of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi.
In a resounding comeback, Sonia Gandhi conquered Amethi in 1999 with a staggering lead of over 300,000 votes against Sanjay Singh. Sonia then paved the way for her son Rahul Gandhi in 2004 by moving to Rae Bareli, where Rahul won consecutive victories in 2004, 2009, and 2014. Nevertheless, his fourth run in 2019 ended in an unexpected defeat by Smriti Irani.
Source: aajtak
Amethi and the Gandhi Legacy
Counted among one of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh, Amethi encompasses five assembly segments - Tiloi, Salon, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj, and Amethi itself. Over the years, Congress, BJP, and the Bahujan Samaj Party have emerged as the key players in this electoral arena.
Amethi's first elected representative in Parliament was Congress’s Vidya Dhar Bajpai who won in 1967 and held the seat until 1971. The substantial upset came in 1977 when Ravindra Pratap Singh of the Janata Party defeated Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi. However, Sanjay exacted his revenge by trouncing Singh in the 1980 general elections. Following Sanjay's tragic demise in the same year, the 1981 by-election paved way for his brother Rajiv Gandhi who registered a phenomenal victory with a lead of over 200,000 votes against his closest competitor.
Rajiv Gandhi represented Amethi until his assassination in 1991 by the LTTE terrorist group. The subsequent by-election that year witnessed victory for Satish Sharma, an ally of the Gandhi family. Sharma repeated his success in 1996 but succumbed to BJP’s Sanjay Singh in 1998. The 2019 general elections marked a milestone for BJP’s Smriti Irani who gained 468,514 votes, surpassing Rahul Gandhi's tally by over 55,000 votes.
It has been announced that the elections for the prestigious Amethi and Rae Bareli seats would take place on May 20, during the fifth phase of the seven-phased general elections. After much speculation and anticipation, the candidates for both constituencies were declared early on Friday, ending the suspense that had been building for days.
