This was BJP leader Smriti Irani responding to the Congress announcement that Rahul Gandhi will move to Raibareli and will not be pitted against her in Amethi. In doing so, the Congress thwarted the saffron party’s plan to restrict the Congress leader to the UP constituency once Wayanad voted.
It was then home minister Amit Shah in an election rally admitted that the Lok Sabha election was a fight between Prime Minister Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
Switch back to Amethi, the Congress sprung a surprise. Enter Gandhi loyalist KL Sharma.
Ludhiana-born Sharma has been associated with the Congress since the 1980s. He first came to Amethi as a Congress worker in 1983. He was closely associated with former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
After Rajiv's death in 1991, Sharma was stationed in Amethi. When the Gandhi family kept away from electoral politics in the 1990s, he campaigned for other Congress candidates. He also played a key role in Sonia Gandhi's first electoral win from Amethi in 1991.
As BJP was hoping to create a national narrative with Rahul Gandhi versus Smriti Irani the election in Amethi went local, and Sharma being stationed there since the 1980’s played with door-to-door campaigns, talking about the price rise, unemployment, and the alleged lack of development in Amethi.
In 2019, Irani earned the monicker 'the Giant Slayer', after she defeated Rahul, which was once considered unimaginable.
But life has come full circle for the former TV star, who even built her house in Amethi.
Sharma all through his campaign had appeared confident, undettered by the kind of attacks unleashed by his political opponents.
The man, who was ridiculed as a peon of Priyanka Gandhi by the BJP will now enter country’s Parliament and in doing so he has put Irani’s rising political career in jeopardy.