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Updated May 2nd, 2022 at 19:50 IST

After forcing Rahul Gandhi out of Amethi in 2019, Smriti Irani now set to visit Wayanad

Smriti Irani's visit to Wayanad can be seen as a direct challenge to ex-Congress chief Rahul Gandhi who was forced to retreat there after his historic defeat.

Reported by: Ananya Varma
SMRITI IRANI
Image: PTI | Image:self
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In a big political development, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, is all set to visit Wayanad, Kerala on May 3. Confirming the development, Irani took to Twitter to share that she would be attending meetings and other public events to look into the development of the district. 

Smriti Irani's visit to Wayanad can be seen as a direct challenge to ex-Congress president Rahul Gandhi who was forced to retreat to the constituency in Kerala after his historic defeat at the hands of the BJP Minister in 2019. Irani had wrestled Amethi from Gandhi-- a seat he held for three consecutive terms, in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. 

The Amethi battle

In 2014, Smriti Irani gave a tough fight to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, losing by 1,07,923 votes. Even after she lost in Amethi, she continued camping in the constituency, working on the ground and waging a 5-year-long campaign. In 2019, she challenged the Gandhi scion once again and this time, successfully defeated him in his own bastion by 55,120 votes- in what went down as one of the biggest election stories that year. 

Notably, Congress and especially the Gandhi family had never lost a Lok Sabha from the Amethi constituency since 1981, except in 1998 to BJP's Sanjay Singh. The 2019 Lok Sabha election was the first time since 1999 that a non-Gandhi and non-Congress member was elected from their home turf.

Meanwhile, Smriti Irani's visit comes to Wayanad amid Rahul Gandhi's prolonged absence in the political field. The Gandhi scion, who had jetted off on a foreign trip in April was also unreachable when poll strategist Prashant Kishor presented a 600-page long power-point presentation to chart out the future course for the grand old party. Ultimately, Gandhi's absence led to Kishor dumping his plans to join Congress.

Snubbing the party, he left the high command with one message, "In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep-rooted structural problems through transformational reforms."

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Published May 2nd, 2022 at 19:50 IST

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