Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Amethi on July 10. This will be his first trip to the constituency after his shocking defeat at the hands of BJP's Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha polls.
According to Congress sources, Rahul Gandhi will be in Amethi to attend a meeting of party workers. His sister and AICC general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is expected to accompany him during the day-long visit.
Rahul Gandhi, who had won thrice from Amethi in the Lok Sabha polls—2004, 2009 and 2014— was defeated by the feisty Irani in the recent general elections, in a verdict described as a 'giant-killing' feat. The Congress leader had inherited the seat, known as a Gandhi pocket borough, from mother Sonia Gandhi, and his loss to Irani by around 55,000 votes became a major highlight of the Lok Sabha elections.
With Irani proving to be a formidable challenger, Rahul Gandhi had also contested from Wayanad, Kerala and won by a margin of over 4.3 lakh votes. Irani had contested against Rahul Gandhi in 2014 too, but the Congress leader had won by a margin of 1.07 lakh votes. However, she had kept up her challenge, visiting the constituency on a regular basis over the last five years and emerging as a voice for the issues of the people of the area.
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The defeat in Amethi came as a shock to the Congress despite the party having realised that Irani was giving Rahul Gandhi a tough fight and it would not be easy for him to win from the constituency. It is learnt that the feedback from the ground that Amethi was not a safe seat anymore for Rahul Gandhi resulted in Priyanka campaigning intensively in the area.
Following Rahul Gandhi's defeat from the family stronghold, the party sent a team comprising K.L. Sharma and Zubair Khan to look into the reasons behind the upset in Amethi. Later, at a review meeting held in neighbouring Rae Bareli, Priyanka is learnt to have minced no words in criticising the local functionaries for their disconnect with the electorate.
