Following the creation of the Lok Sabha constituency in 1967, the Gandhi family has represented Amethi in Uttar Pradesh for thirty years. However, on Friday, Rahul Gandhi, the final member of the Gandhi family to hold this seat, moved to the nearby Raebareli.
Sonia Gandhi, Rahul’s mother, was a Raebareli MP in the 17th Lok Sabha that just ended. In the 2019 election, she was the lone Congress winner in the UP. In Amethi, Rahul was then defeated by Smriti Irani of the BJP.
Gandhi supporter Kishori Lal Sharma is running in Amethi, a constituency that the Congress first family and its allies have only lost three times since 1967. The only other times non-Congress candidates have prevailed were in 1977 following the Emergency, 1998 when former royal Sanjay Singh defeated Satish Sharma of the Congress, and 2019 when Smriti defeated Rahul. Prior to losing to Smriti and winning from Wayanad in Kerala, Rahul had served as the representative for Amethi for fifteen years, beginning in 2004 when he took over his mother’s position in the legislature.
Rahul’s life came full circle on Friday when, in an effort to distance himself from the stigma associated with the BJP’s defeat in 2019, he chose to take his mother’s safe seat for the second time.
