How a Gandhi fortress fell to the saffron wave

In the first surge of the Modi wave in 2014, Rahul Gandhi had been able to keep Amethi, his family's preserve since the 1980s and his own since 2004. But five years later, on Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party's Smriti Irani turned the tide, wresting it from the Congress president by 55,120 votes.

How did she do it? Locals say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's work, clubbed with her own rigorous campaigning, helped her win this Uttar Pradesh constituency she had lost to the three-term Amethi MP, in 2014.

Dinesh Singh, a local resident, said, "Smriti Irani, even after losing the elections in 2014, stayed back here in Amethi, visiting the villages, while Rahul disappeared."

He said her first question to any village she visited in Amethi during electioneering was whether the villagers saw their MP (Gandhi) of 15 years other than during election time, and in most places, the reply was in the negative.

"She mounted her onslaught, asking villagers why they voted for a candidate who was constantly missing," he said.

Irani didn't actively use the slogan 'Laapata Sansad' (missing MP), but her questions drove home the point.

"She rented a house in Gauriganj and and stayed with the villagers, meeting them and attending their functions. She got the support of the floating voters first," said Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasiya, BJP's co-incharge for elections in UP.

The work done by the BJP regime bolstered her campaign in the bastion that has in the past been represented by Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. 

"Rahul didn't campaign at all. He came in very late and by then Smriti had reached almost all the villages in the constituency. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's entry was too late in the day to have any impact. We locals had decided to rise above the caste question and had decided to vote for BJP this time," said Singh. Rahul opting for the second seat of Wayanad in Kerala also sent out a message that he was abandoning them, the locals said.

The development works done by the government — providing toilets, insurance policy and inauguration of a factory in Amethi — added heft to the BJP's campaign in Amethi.

The seat signified prestige and political security for the Gandhi family. It was a hard-fought battle that Irani won. Her tweet after the poll results summarised the fight for her. It read: 'Kaun kehta hai aasmaa me surakh nahin ho sakta (Who says the impossible can't be achieved)'.