Amethi: Dubbed as the battle of battles is that of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh as Congress president Rahul Gandhi will go head to head against challenger BJP leader Smriti Irani, also a Union minister.
As per latest trends, Smriti was leading by over 6,000 votes against Rahul.
Smriti has extended a tough challenge to the Congress scion and Gandhi himself fuelled apprehensions of a rather tough and close call in Amethi by also choosing to contest from Kerala’s Wayanad, a constituency that has a favourable population of Muslims and hence considered a safe seat for him.
Even BJP has always pitched lightweights from this constituency. But 2014 changed everything when Smriti was fielded from this Gandhi bastion. Smriti gave a tough fight to Rahul. In the end, Smriti may have lost the election, but it was no longer a cakewalk for the Gandhi scion. Gandhi won by a margin of just 1.07 lakh votes.
To put things in context, he lost more than 2 lakh votes in comparison to the 2009 election. Even after the loss, Smriti didn't stop regularly visiting Amethi, and she has been instrumental in bringing a lot of developmental projects there. In 2019, this is touted to be the mother of all clashes.