Lok Sabha elections 2024: Elections are interesting – especially when it’s between members of the same family. In the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, Rajiv Gandhi faced his sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi from Amethi constituency, the stronghold of the Gandhi family. While Rajiv Gandhi had contested the elections on a Congress ticket, Maneka Gandhi was in the fray against the former Prime Minister as an independent candidate. During that time, Rajiv Gandhi got 365,041 votes, while Maneka got only 50,163 votes.
The Lok Sabha elections of 1984 were such that the conflict between the Gandhi family came to the fore in the country. Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984. Rajiv Gandhi was the MP from Amethi at that time. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the date of general elections was fixed on 26 December 1984. Rajiv Gandhi was again in the electoral fray from Amethi. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the internal feud going on in the Gandhi family came out and Maneka Gandhi announced to contest the elections from Amethi from ‘Sanjay Vichar Manch’ against the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Two members of the Gandhi family were facing each other. Then, in the wave of sympathy arising from the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the people of Amethi elected Rajiv Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi’s bail could not be saved.
Elections were held on Amethi seat for the first time in 1977.
Let us tell you that Amethi area was earlier a part of Sultanpur South parliamentary seat. After this, in 1962, Musafirkhana Lok Sabha seat was formed by merging four assembly constituencies of Sultanpur district and one Atheha assembly of Pratapgarh, of which Amethi used to be a part. In the delimitation of 1972, Amethi Lok Sabha seat was formed by combining two assembly seats of Rae Bareli district and three assembly seats of Sultanpur district. For the first time in 1977, elections were held on Amethi Lok Sabha seat.
Rajiv Gandhi was invincible from Amethi
In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections held after the Emergency, Sanjay Gandhi of Congress had contested from Amethi seat, while Ravindra Pratap Singh of Janata Party was in the fray against him. Sanjay Gandhi had lost this election. But even after losing the election, he remained strong in Amethi area. Sanjay Gandhi was elected MP from Amethi seat in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, but he died in a plane crash within a year. After his death, Rajiv Gandhi started his political innings by winning the 1981 Amethi by-election in a landslide and remained invincible as long as he contested this seat. Rajiv Gandhi won the Lok Sabha elections from this seat three times in a row – in 1984, 1989 and 1991.
Third generation of Gandhi family
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi started his electoral journey from this seat and won by a margin of 2,90,853 votes. After this, the results of 2009 Lok Sabha elections were also in favor of Congress. Rahul was elected from the constituency three consecutive times in 2004, 2009 and 2014 but the biggest upset was seen in Amethi in the 2019 elections. In 2019, Rahul Gandhi got about 4.13 lakh votes, while Smriti Irani got about 4.68 lakh votes and won by a margin of about 55 thousand votes.
If the opinions of local and turncoat Congress leaders are taken into account, the apparent lack of interest from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in 2019 went in favor of BJP’s Smriti Irani, who snatched the seat from the Gandhi family. If reports are to be believed, this time also the chances of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi contesting elections from Amethi and Rae Bareli are less.
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