BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi constituency Smriti Irani won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by defeating Congress president Rahul Gandhi with a margin over 55,000 votes.
Smriti Irani on Thursday tweeted, "It's a new morning for Amethi, a fresh resolution. Thank you, Amethi. You trusted the development and let the lotus flower. Gratitude."
While it has been a shameful defeat for Congress many of the political analysts said that the reason behind Irani's victory was her continuous visits to the constituency, where she overlooked the problems faced by the people. She has used the political power well in Amethi by distributing clothes, shoes and textbooks that have swayed the voters.
Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, was very loose when it came to Amethi, being the Congress fortress since 1967. He only took part in the election campaign once and the rest of his campaign was conducted by his sister and general secretary of Congress, Priyanka Gandhi. This led to the defeat of Rahul Gandhi in his own home turf.
Analyst JP Shukla said, "Smriti made the best use of Rahul's absence in her 'Lapata Saansad' campaign. She also took advantage of Rahul's decision to contest from two seats and called him 'bhagoda saansad (deserter MP)," reports TOI.
Smriti Irani won the elections from Amethi constituency with a total of 4,67,598 votes and a margin of 55,120 votes. During the 2014 elections, the Congress president had defeated Irani with a margin of 1,07,903 votes.
