Lucknow: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi registered a huge win over his BJP rival in Raebareli while Kishori Lal Sharma, a close confidante of the Gandhis, caused a big upset by defeating Union Minister Smriti Irani from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat.
The Congress, thus, not only managed to retain its stronghold of Raebareli but also avenged the defeat of Rahul Gandhi in Amethi at the hand of Smriti Irani in the 2019 LS polls.
Rahul defeated his nearest BJP rival Dinesh Pratap Singh by a massive margin of over 3.75 lakh votes. In Amethi, another Gandhi family bastion, Sharma defeated Smriti Irani by over 1.30 lakh votes. In the 2019 LS polls, Smriti Irani had defeated Rahul by over 55 thousand votes.
Both Rahul and Sharma forged ahead of their rivals from the very first round of counting and continued to increase their lead with every round.
Sharma credited his victory to the Gandhi family. ‘’My win is dedicated to the Gandhi family and the people of Amethi ... .Priyankaji and Rahulji worked very hard for my win,, he told reporters in Amethi.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who had spearheaded Sharma’s election campaign in Amethi, said in a post that she knew that the people of Amethi would shower their blessing on Sharma.
The victories in Raebareli and Amethi came as a huge relief for the grand old party as the BJP had set its eyes on Raebareli after it wrested Amethi from Congress in 2019 LS elections. Sonia’s decision to move to Rajya Sabha only added to the saffron party’s hopes to dislodge Congress from its last bastion in UP.
The saffron party had been making preparations to win Raebareli and retain Amethi for the past two years. The party had managed to bring to its fold Congress MLA from Raebareli Sadar seat Aditi Singh, a Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from Bachhrawan, and a prominent Brahmin leader—Manoj Pandey.
In Amethi also, the BJP brought to its fold Gauriganj SP MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh and Amethi MLA Mahraji Devi.
Published 04 June 2024, 14:45 IST