Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminisced on the biggest achievement of his political career as he arrived in Amethi on Thursday to campaign for the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh. Twenty years ago, he became an MLA on February 24. After being unexpectedly thrust into mainstream politics for the first time , he says the people of Rajkot have continued to bless him and provide him with a platform to serve. Modi said he had never considered electoral politics or joining the election battle.
The first step Narendra Modi took that day has turned into a continuous journey spanning two decades. Modi describes his journey as peoples’ representative on a journey to serve the citizens in the best way he can. In February 2002, Modi had to contest byelections from Rajkot-2. Since he was becoming chief minister of Gujarat in 2001, he had to fulfill the constitutional requirement of holding an assembly seat within six months. In the 2002 by-election, he won from Rajkot. Results were announced on February 24, 2002. Modi defeated his Congress opponent by a margin of 14,728 votes. Vajubhai Vala had been Gujarat’s finance minister and governor of Karnataka before he vacated the Rajkot-2 seat for Modi.
On the same day, UP’s assembly election results were also announced. The state was under President’s rule for a few weeks because no political party had a clear mandate. In his second election, Modi contested the Maninagar seat in Ahmedabad. The proximity of Maninagar to Gandhinagar was a key reason for Modi’s decision to pick this seat so that he could easily serve the people. From the same seat, he won the 2007 and 2012 assembly elections by large margins.
Aside from winning impressive victories for himself, Modi led his party to sweeping victories in 2002, 2007 and 2012. In 2014, Modi rode a Modi wave across the country as a result of hat trick victory and his accomplishments as chief minister of Gujarat. After winning the elections from Vadodara and Varanasi by huge margins in 2014, Modi led the BJP to victory in the 2014 and 2019 general elections. However, he decided to represent Varanasi instead of Vadodara in Parliament. During the 2019 elections, he again represented Varanasi and won with a strong showing.
When Modi was CM and then PM, he developed his assembly and parliamentary constituencies as a people’s representative. In 2014, Varanasi witnessed a similar increase in the sheen of Maninagar. All over the country, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is a topic of discussion, as are cleanliness drives on roads and Ganga Ghats, as well as many big projects being undertaken. With Modi’s promise that it would be developed like Kyoto, this ancient city of Baba Vishwanath now glistens with progress.
Modi visits his constituencies regularly. As a representative of the people occupying the office of chief minister or prime minister, visiting his constituency may be considered an achievement, especially given that he doesn’t belong to these areas and doesn’t have any permanent residences there. In Amethi, Modi referred to this unique record of his by telling the residents that the Nehru-Gandhi family is a real family. Modi is thus showing the true image of the Nehru-Gandhi family to the residents of Amethi. The family has won elections from Amethi four times, but nothing has happened. Modi explained why the people of Amethi chased the family away from here.
Amethi’s first MP was Sanjay Gandhi who was elected in 1980. After Sanjay Gandhi’s death in 1981, Rajiv Gandhi was into polls four times: in 1981, 1984, 1989, and 1991. After his assassination, Captain Satish Sharma won the by-election of 1991 and the general elections of 1996. First won by Sanjay Singh in 1998, Sonia Gandhi contested the elections here in 1999. Rahul Gandhi won three consecutive elections from Amethi in 2004, 2009, and 2014. In 2014, Smriti Irani challenged Rahul Gandhi, and she defeated him in 2019. Rahul was thoroughly beaten and he entered Parliament through Wayanad.
The Nehru-Gandhi family neglected their parliamentary seat, in stark contrast to Modi’s efforts for development in his constituency. This contrast is what Modi was seen to try to emphasize before the people of Amethi at a time when elections are being held in Uttar Pradesh, and the public was set to declare its verdict.
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