Battle of the Bastions: Smriti Irani, Amethi and the unmaking of a Gandhi family stronghold

Amethi Lok Sabha Election 2024: On May 5, 2014, as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi addressed a political gathering in Amethi, located about 670 km southeast of Indian capital New Delhi. Blending raw emotion with subtle humour, Modi put up a dare to the mediapersons present at the venue.  

"Mere media ke mitro mein dum ho toh ek kaam kar ke dikhayein. Ek taraf meri chhoti behan ko khada kar dein aur ek taraf Rahul Bhaiya ke poore parivar ko khada kar dein. Aur sirf Amethi Lok Sabha kshetra ke gaon ke naam poochiye. Main daave se kehta hu, agar Smriti Irani sau gaon ke naam bata payengi, toh ye poora parivar dus gaon ke naam bhi nahi bata paayega (The friends in media, if you dare, please do the following. Let my younger sister stand across Rahul Gandhi's family. Ask them the name of villages in Amethi Lok Sabha constituency. If Smriti Irani names one hundred villages, they wouldn't be able to name even ten)"​

Smriti Irani with Narendra Modi in Amethi on May 5, 2014 | File

Since Amethi Lok Sabha constituency came into being in 1967, Congress won all Lok Sabha elections but twice — in 1977 and 1996. Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lost from Amethi in the post-Emergency Lok Sabha elections of 1977, but the constituency sent him to parliament in 1980. After Sanjay Gandhi's death in a plane crash, his brother Rajiv Gandhi — who became India's prime minister in 1984 — represented Amethi in Lok Sabha until his assassination in 1991. 

Rajiv Gandhi (Amethi MP, 1981-1984; 1984-1989; 1989-1991) with wife Sonia Gandhi (Amethi MP, 1999-2004) in Amethi in April 1983 | Instagram/@rememberingrajiv

As Sonia Gandhi took a formal turn to politics, she chose Amethi's comfortable political pools for her electoral plunge in 1999. In 2004, when Sonia and Rajiv's son Rahul decided to enter parliamentary politics, the mother switched to neighbouring familyborough of Raebareli, leaving Amethi's sheltered political space for the fifth-generation scion of Congress party's Nehru-Gandhi family.

Rahul Gandhi (R) with his election certificate outside a counting center in Sultanpur near Amethi on May 13, 2004 | AFP

Amethi in 2004 was "no more or less of a backwater than the rest of Uttar Pradesh", wrote Ruchir Sharma in his 2019 book Democracy on the Road' while referring to the dismal state of development in the constituency.

"Cultivating or nursing Lok Sabha constituencies is a latter day phenomenon in the Indian parliamentary tradition, starting ninth or tenth Lok Sabha Election," senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai told WION, while referring to the way the political strongholds are maintained by the political parties for winning Lok Sabha elections.

Kidwai reasoned that politicians prior to ninth Lok Sabha election (1989) often switched constituencies and did not nurse particular strongholds for themselves, and left the matters of development to the state government and local municipalities. 

But for the Nehru-Gandhi family of Congress party, starting 1980, Amethi remained a well-cultivated political stronghold.

Decades later, Amethi's political ground beneath Rahul Gandhi was shaken in 2014 after the BJP fielded popular actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani against him.

Former Defence Minister and Goa BJP stalwart Manohar Parrikar was among the first to sense the winds of change in Amethi in 2014, Kartikeya Tanna, author of 'The Smriti Irani Story: Why She Won Amethi' told WION | File

Amethi's tryst with Nehru-Gandhi family crumbled in 2019 when Irani secured nearly 50 per cent of total votes, beating Rahul Gandhi by over 55,000 votes.

The constituency's decades-long association with the Gandhis finally broke away in 2024 when, like 2004, Sonia Gandhi again gave away her political space — this time in neighbouring Raebareli — to her son Rahul Gandhi.

Also read | Rahul Gandhi to contest Lok Sabha polls from Rae Bareli, KL Sharma from Amethi

Speaking to WION, Kartikeya Tanna, author of 'The Smriti Irani Story: Why She Won Amethi' said that while Irani first lost out to Rahul Gandhi in 2014, she did not give up on the constituency.

"She visited Amethi almost every month, sometimes twice a month to fulfill all the promises that she had made during the campaign in 2014 even though she had lost," Tanna said.

Kartikeya Tanna, author of 'The Smriti Irani Story', points to Samajwadi Party's admitted "help" to ensure Rahul Gandhi's election from Amethi in 2014 after the party chose to not put up its candidate from the constituency 

But "a significant percentage" of Irani's 2019 success in Amethi is the function of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity, Tanna contends. 

In addition to Irani's Amethi visits between the general election of 2014 and 2019, BJP's Yogi Adityanath became Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2017. "So the BJP's state-level governance which also benefited Amethi, helped Smriti Irani win big in 2019," he said. 

Amethi is set to vote on May 20, 2024 during the fifth phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Smriti Irani is seeking re-election while facing Kishori Lal Sharma of Congress party and Nanhe Singh Chauhan of Bahujan Samaj Party. The counting of votes is scheduled to begin on June 4, 2024.

For all the latest developments related to Lok Sabha Elections 2024, stay tuned with WION, World Is One News.