Fact File

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the fourth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to choose Amethi for making her parliamentary debut. Her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, his younger brother, Sanjay, and the latter8217;s wife, Maneka, had all opted for this seat to launch their parliamentary careers.

Because of the Emergency excesses, Sanjay got a drubbing here in 1977. He was defeated by Bharatiya Lok Dal candidate Ravindra Singh, who got 60 per cent of the votes as against Sanjay8217;s 20 per cent. Sanjay tried his luck again in 1980, this time defeating Ravindra Singh by getting 57 per cent of the votes.

Following the death of Sanjay, his elder brother, Rajiv, successfully contested the 1981 by-election. Soon after the assassination of Indira, Rajiv was again the candidate from Amethi against his sister-in-law, Maneka, who stood as an Independent. Rajiv got a landslide victory with 83 per cent of the votes while Maneka got 11 per cent. In 1989, Rajiv defeated Rajmohan Gandhi by a huge margin and Ravindra Pratap of the BJP in 1991.

After his assassination, his friend, Capt Satish Sharma, contested from Amethi in 1996 and won but lost to Sanjay Singh of the BJP in 1998.