Election Results 2019: Smriti Irani defeats Rahul Gandhi in his bastion of Amethi by 55,000 votes.
BJP leader Smriti Irani has emerged as a giant-killer in this Lok Sabha election. She defeated Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, a three-term parliamentarian from the Nehru-Gandhi family pocket borough, Amethi.
Amethi has been Mr Gandhi's constituency since 2004. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Rahul Gandhi defeated Smriti Irani by a margin of 1.07 lakh votes, but the margin had shrunk drastically to 12.33 per cent since 2009, when he won the seat by a margin of over 3.70 lakh votes.
But even before the final results were out on Thursday, the Smriti Irani vs Rahul Gandhi battle led to a flood of reactions and memes on Twitter. Many lauded the fighting spirit of Smriti Irani and took a dig at the Congress party for its dismal performance in the election. Here's how Twitter reacted:
Rahul Gandhi, 48, conceded defeat in a press conference later in the evening and congratulated Smriti Irani for her victory. "I want Smriti Irani ji to keep people's faith and take care of Amethi with love," he told reporters in a brief press conference after the Congress's massive defeat in the national election.