A picture of Smriti Irani is going viral on Facebook and WhatsApp groups in India. Bhartiya Janta Party leader and cabinet minister Ms Irani can be seen lending her shoulder to the mortal remains of her close aide Mr Surendra Singh, who was shot dead in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. This picture tells the story of the fall of the most important Congress-bastion in 2019 elections, where Smiriti Irani beat the Congress-president Rahul Gandhi, who has been a three-time MP from Amethi.
The massive mandate of Narendra Modi in India's Lok Sabha elections may have come as a surprise to the opposition parties, but one election result is the most discussed. It is the defeat of Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, the pocket borough of Congress for the last four decades. His uncle Sanjay Gandhi, father Rajeev Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi had continuously represented Amethi in parliament. Rahul himself has been winning the seat for the last 15 years, but this time he lost to BJP's Smriti Irani.
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There may be many reasons for Rahul's defeat from Amethi which he modestly accepted. After 2014 when his winning margin was reduced, the writing on the wall was clear. The Modi wave was quite effective. After her loss in 2014, Smriti Irani did not disconnect herself from Amethi. During the past five years, she gave full 61 days to Amethi. She not only ensured that government schemes reach the people but also developed a direct connection with the people, says Amethi-resident Gopal Pandey.
"Smriti Irani kept in touch with the people of Amethi regularly. She visited people, helped them, talked to them at times. She sent them to doctors when sick. She sent them gifts in marriages. There was a direct connect," Mr Pandey told SBS Hindi.
Rahul, however, remained on political tourism with his hip hop stop at Amethi.
L-R: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi with her daughter and Congress General Secretary, Priyanka Gandhi and son, Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Source: Pankaj Nangia/India Today Group/Getty Images
Politically it was evident in 2017 that Congress is now on a sticky wicket in Amethi. Among the five assembly seats, it had lost all in assembly polls. Four are with BJP while one is with SP. Congress led by few thousand votes only in one of the assembly seats while lost from remaining four.
Rahul Gandhi too had sensed it and shifted to Wayanad. This, again, had backfired among the people as they treated it as a loss of trust between them. Local political leader Mr Ranjit Singh says, "Rahul Gandhi choosing Waynad sent a wrong message to the voters of Amethi that he was not trusting them. Moreover, his connection was more a picnic style than a leader working for the community."
Believe it or not, there are still his supporters and well-wishers in Amethi who did not want him to lose but were lackadaisical in approach and had never imagined in their wildest dream that Rahul might lose the polls.
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Amethi was first selected in 1976 by Sanjay Gandhi. Though he lost his first polls in 1977 from here, he stuck to Amethi. It resulted in Amethi sending Gandhi family to parliament for over 39 years. However, during these decades, the old generation has passed away, and the new generation is not so emotionally connected.
Above all, Modi wave weighed heavily on everything, and the grand old party had given its worst performance so far from UP winning just one seat.
