Congress chief Rahul Gandhi made his political debut in the Lok Sabha election of 2004, contesting from Amethi. His mother, then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, had won the constituency in 1999, but switched over to nearby Rae Bareli to help him take his political plunge in a 'safe' seat. Rahul has won from Amethi thrice.
However, by 2.30pm on Thursday, in his fourth contest from Amethi, Rahul is trailing by a margin of over 11,000 votes against Union minister Smriti Irani. Rahul had a close fight with Irani in 2014, with the combative BJP leader leading in the early rounds then. Rahul had won in 2014 by a margin of about 1 lakh votes, far less than his previous two victories.
If Rahul were to lose from Amethi, he would share an ignominious distinction with his grandmother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi and uncle Sanjay Gandhi. Both had lost from their respective constituencies in the 'anti-Indira' vote of 1977 in the backlash against the Emergency.
Sanjay, who was contesting from Amethi in his first election, lost the 1977 battle to Ravindra Pratap Singh of the Janata Party by a margin of about 75,000 votes. Indira Gandhi, who had won from Rae Bareli in 1967 and 1971, lost from there to Raj Narain of the Janata Dal by a margin of 55,202 votes.
Perhaps, sensing an aggressive challenge from Irani, who has proactively 'nursed' Amethi in the five years of the Modi government, Rahul also decided to contest from Wayanad in Kerala.
In the 1980 election, Indira fought from both Rae Bareli and Medak in Andhra Pradesh, the first time a Nehru-Gandhi opted for a second, safe seat. Indira won both; in Rae Bareli, she defeated Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia, grandmother of current Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes. However, Indira resigned from the Rae Bareli seat and opted to keep Medak.
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Sanjay won from Amethi in 1980, defeating Ravindra Pratap Singh by a margin of over 1.2 lakh votes. However, Amethi saw a byelection the next year after Sanjay died in a plane crash. Sanjay's brother, and Rahul's father, Rajiv won the Amethi seat in 1981 and went on to win the seat in 1984, 1989 and 1991. The loss of Amethi to the BJP when captain Satish Sharma was contesting for the Congress in the 1998 Lok Sabha election—in which the Congress drew a blank in Uttar Pradesh—has been considered one of the factors that compelled Sonia to enter active politics.
Will Rahul join the ignominious club of those Nehru-Gandhi family members who have lost from a family pocket borough? And if so, will Priyanka Gandhi take up the role her mother played after the 1998 election?
