From the day, the Congress declared his ticket from the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi, it was certain that he was going to wrest the seat back for his party. A humble and grassroots activist from the very beginning, Kishori Lal Sharma, proved to be more than a match for his BJP opponent, Smriti Irani, known for her unnecessary aggression and arrogance. Most media channels while voicing the former minister’s sentiments had virtually written off Sharma, and had declared that Rahul Gandhi, whom Smriti had defeated in 2019, had run away from the constituency. However, those who have watched and known Sharma for the past 40 years, when he was handpicked along with some others, by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, to nurture Amethi, knew from the very beginning that the BJP would lose the seat.
A quiet and unassuming worker, who knows every party worker in even the remotest parts of Amethi and Rae Bareilly, Kishori Lal Sharma, was in fact a very strong candidate. He not only proved his strength in the polls, but has by defeating Smriti Irani, gladdened the hearts of many in the Congress and some even in the BJP. The buzz was that a large number of BJP workers and leaders, did not work for her and decided to either sit at home, or support her rival.
There were also reports which suggested that there was lack of compatibility between Sanjay Singh, the erstwhile Raja of Amethi, who is now in the Saffron Brigade, and Smriti Irani, who had on multiple occasions humiliated him. This by no means does not take away the credit from Kishori Lal Sharma, whose connect with the region, helped him overcome all kinds of hurdles. As has been his conduct in the past, after being declared victorious, he collected his own and Rahul Gandhi’s election certificates and reached the capital to thank the Gandhis. The meeting was very cordial and Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka, all congratulated him and his wife, the video of which has gone viral. Kishori Lal in his modest manner, did not mince any words and told Mrs Gandhi, that the credit for his winning was entirely hers and of the Gandhi siblings. He then went to his office located in AICC headquarters, and it appeared that nothing had changed for him. Despite being now an MP elect, he met a large number of his well-wishers who had come to congratulate him and distributed ladoos to them. He also got busy replying to at least 2000 messages in his inbox, and since he has no secretarial assistance, did the task himself. Kishori Lal’s immediate plans are to organize a thanksgiving joint meeting for the people of Rae Bareilly and Amethi, at a ground that has been identified near Fursatganj.
The three Gandhis shall be attending the mega event to express their gratitude to the residents of the family bastions. One of the factors that contributed to Sharma’s victory was the realization amongst the electorate in Amethi that their status as citizens had been impacted after they had allowed Smriti to win in 2019. Till that point, wherever they would travel in the country, the ordinary resident of Amethi would get some sort of recognition once he or she disclosed the place from where they were. On learning that they were from Amethi, people would generally acknowledge their presence by giving a warm response.
Sharma who is a man of few words, did say that he was infuriated when his rival mocked the Gandhis, and accused them of running away from the contest. He said that it was then and there that he decided to take her head-on. This was possible because he had the full backing of the Gandhis, and Priyanka had made it into a prestige issue to ensure that the Congress emerged victorious. In the 1970s, Amethi, then a part of the Sultanpur district was a very backward area due to rampant underdevelopment and poverty. The late Sanjay Gandhi was at that point exploring the possibility of making Amethi as his Lok Sabha constituency. He had also made some exploratory visits to Ajnala in Punjab to ascertain which area would be more suitable, and had finally settled for the UP constituency, from where he contested his maiden Lok Sabha election in 1977 against Ravinder Pratap Singh.
In the anti-Congress atmosphere, Sanjay lost but wrested the seat in 1980 by defeating the same opponent by a very huge margin. This was six months before he died in a plane crash. It is another matter that subsequently, disillusioned with political developments, Ravinder Pratap Singh, had supported Rajiv Gandhi when he was contesting against Rajmohan Gandhi in 1989. The significance of Amethi is that it has been the stepping stone to electoral politics for many of the Gandhis, beginning from Sanjay, Rajiv, Maneka, Sonia and Rahul.
The constituency has also been represented by Captain Satish Sharma, a close family friend, who also won from Rae Bareilly on another occasion. Incidentally Maneka, who later became a nine-time MP, the senior most in the 17th Lok Sabha, had lost her first election from there to Rajiv in 1984. She was in two minds to contest but was persuaded to enter the fray, despite efforts by some family well-wishers to prevent a showdown. It was around this time when Kishori Lal Sharma, a youngman from Ludhiana, who owned a confectionary shop there, and a cousin of Captain Satish Sharma, was drafted by Rajiv along with some others to nurture the constituency. It is evident that he has come a long way.