In this election, if there’s a clear winner after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, it would be BJP’s Smriti Irani, who has handed Congress President Rahul Gandhi a shocking defeat in the Gandhi family bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Gandhi conceded defeat in a press conference even before the counting in Amethi had been completed.
“I respect the verdict of the people of Amethi and I congratulate Smriti Irani on her victory. I hope she treats Amethi with love,” he said.
The Gandhi family has represented the seat nine times and this is only the second time that a family member has been defeated in the seat. The last time this happened was in 1977 when Sanjay Gandhi lost to Ravindra Pratap Singh of the Janata Party in what was an anti-Congress wave due to the anger against the Emergency.