This was the moment she had been waiting since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when she had lost to Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the latter's home turf of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Union minister Smriti Irani had given Gandhi a tough fight in 2014 and managed to bring down his victory margin from three lakh in 2009 LS polls to one lakh.
Not many believed that she could actually capture the Nehru-Gandhi fort five years later though Irani had other ideas.
Not losing hopes despite her defeat in 2014, Irani continued to assiduously nurture Amethi, in Uttar Pradesh, by visiting the constituency at regular intervals, meeting the electorate and also providing them every possible help.
As part of her outreach to the Amethi electorate, Irani arranged trips for the voters of the constituency to the recently concluded 'Kumbh' at Prayagraj and also distributed sarees among the women of the constituency.
She had camped at Amethi almost immediately after the 2019 LS poll schedule was announced. She also got almost the entire senior BJP leadership and union ministers to campaign in the constituency.
One factor, that also appeared to have gone in her favour was her response to an incident of fire at a village in Amethi barely a few days before the polling there.
She not only reached the spot within minutes but also joined the other residents in pouring bucket full of waters in a bid to extinguish the fire. The video footage of her pouring water had gone viral on the social networking sites and was also aired prominently on the TV channels.
Popularly referred to as 'didi' (sister), Irani worked especially hard among the womenfolk in the constituency and managed to win their trust.
She also harped on Gandhi's decision to contest from Wayanad LS seat in Kerala and was able to convince the voters that he would resign from Amethi if he won from Wayanad.