AMETHI: It took a lot of tenacity for Union minister
Smriti Irani, who picked up the gauntlet to fight
Rahul Gandhi again in his family pocket borough
Amethi despite loss in 2014, to end the Gandhis’ five-decade-long dominance here and becoming the first from the BJP to beat any Congress national president.
Smriti trumped Rahul by a margin of almost 45,453 votes.
Speaking exclusively to TOI, Smriti described the fight as that of “those who look with condescension towards society” and a dedicated karyakarta, who started her career with Rs 200 in a pocket to go on to become an MP.
She thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah and the party.
Two days before the campaign ended, Shah, speaking exclusively to TOI, had said that “Amethi was a fight between vikas and parivarvad.”
Many in the BJP on Thursday concurred with him, saying that Irani’s persistence to ensure development work in Amethi despite a loss in 2014 only cut more ice with the voters. For nearly 60 days, Smriti stayed on the second-floor of a rented home—Krishna Mansion—owned by one Rakesh Gupta in Gauriganj.
Between 2014 and 2019, she made a record 63 visits to Amethi—keeping them quiet and unannounced—as against 28 by Rahul, sometimes bringing along Union ministers Sanjiv Balyan or Manohar Parrikar, for random visits to villages and distribute saris, shoes, clothes and even textbooks in several villages. Two of them—Hariharpur and Baraulia—even got adopted by the then Union defence minister between 2015 and 2017.
Her biggest moment came in March this year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Amethi to lay the foundation stone of the legendary AK 47 rifle factory even as Rahul levelled allegations that a food park to be established by UPA was taken away.
Priyanka Gandhi’s barb at her, saying her charitable distribution made Amethi voters feel “poorer” and “like beggars,” was seen as a pompous statement, deriding the voters, who only got further enraged with the Gandhi family’s reluctance to visit and spend time
Within a month of her loss in 2014, she went on to set up urea and ammonia racks for delivery, brought a reservation counter at Amethi railway station and asked Union railway minister Utretia to Varanasi with rail electrification via Amethi, link road between Amethi and Rae Bareli to National Highway and a Sainik school.
There was no looking back in Amethi as she toured Tiloi, Salon, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj and Amethi during 2017 polls, resulting in record victories of as many as four MLAs—penetrating these traditional Congress and SP bastions.
Despite BSP supremo Mayawati’s belated announcement to ask its supporters to vote for the Congress, support for Smriti only grew as several Union ministers like Anupriya Patel, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Bhojpuri icons like Manoj Tiwari and Nirahua, despite campaigning for their own seats, came to address public rallies.
Twice, UP CM Yogi Adityanath came to organise roadshows, including one on the day of her nomination.
Throughout the campaign, she largely gave space to local MLAs like Garima Singh, Dal Bahadur, Mayankeshwar Singh, ensuring a full caste representation. Amethi
Lok Sabha in charge and UP minister Mohsin Raza inducted several people who had benefited from schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Ujjwala and Ujala.
However, it was Smriti’s decision to keep a combination of Amethi BJP district in charge Durgesh and Govind Chauhan and city’s prosperous businessman Rajesh, who runs a big spice firm, that kept her in direct touch with voters’ grievances.