Amethi: From Dynasty to Democracy

A PAGE-TURNER ON HOW THE CONGRESS LOST ITS PRIZED BASTION TO SMRITI IRANI IN 2019 Amethi has long been one of India’s most high-profile constituencies. Billed as ‘karmabhoomi’ of the Nehru–Gandhi family, it has been continually held by the Congress since its inception as a Lok Sabha constituency in 1967, except for half a dozen years in between. Reports in the national media and Congress projections have always shown it as a robust and highly developed area. However, when Smriti Irani stepped into this constituency as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the 2014 elections, the truth behind the Amethi myth became apparent. Irani was struck by the dereliction of the place and its people. Amethi was neglected, backward and depressed about its future. It had become little more than a political tourist destination that politicians, industrialists, middlemen and the media stepped into and dealt with as they please. Tracing Irani’s footsteps from her defeat in 2014 to her win in 2019, senior journalist Anant Vijay attempts to understand the reasons behind her success in Amethi, shining a light on both Irani’s personality and her political methods. Through the political history of what was once a Congress bastion, this book examines how political parties function in a democracy like ours. Vijay’s book is also a keen study of the RSS’s working style, its strategies and exemplary execution that backed Smriti Irani’s efforts from 2014 to 2019.