Making it tough for Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the BJP on Monday night decided to field former television actress and Rajya Sabha member Smriti Irani from the prestigious Amethi constituency that has been a pocket borough of Nehru-Gandhi family for decades. However, the party decided against nominating firebrand leader 'Sadhvi' Uma Bharti against Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and instead chose Ajay Aggarwal, a Supreme Court lawyer to take on the Congress president.
Smriti will be locked in three-cornered contest against Rahul and Kumar Viswas of the AAP. Reacting to her nomination, Irani said she was contesting to win. “I hope the best person wins, but being the only woman in the contest, I am confident to win. People of Amethi didn't benefit from Gandhi who never spoke about people of his constituency. I have spoken more in Parliament than Rahul Gandhi has done. I have head start in terms of public service,” she said.
Ajay Aggarwal, who will take on Sonia, is a well-known Delhi-based lawyer, who has been active in Rae Bareli for the last few months. Uma Bharti has already been nominated from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh and is understood to have been reluctant to shift to Rae Bareli.
The name of Smriti Zubin Irani (Smriti Malhotra), former Television actress, most popular for essaying the role of “Tulsi “ in the popular serial of “Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi”, was suggested in view of her popularity and combative persona that fitted the bill for the prestigious Amethi lok Sabha seat against the Gandhi scion. Her Parsi background may also have come handy for her selection against Rahul Gandhi.
Irani, 38, a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, is “seen” to be a strong supporter of party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The articulate vice-president of the BJP is an experienced hand in handing campaign as she had made her electoral debut from New Delhi lok Sabha seat in 2004. Born in Delhi to a Bengali mother and Punjabi father, Smriti is the eldest among three sisters. She is married to her childhood friend Zubin Irani, a Parsi.
“Kyoki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi”, directed by Ekta Kapoor and one of the longest run television serials, made Smriti a household name. She fell out with the producer Ekta Kapoor and left the show in June 2007.
Smriti joined the BJP in 2003 and was allotted a party ticket in 2004 from the Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi against veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
She lost the election but continued to work for the party. She was made vice-president of the Maharashtra Youth Wing in 2004 and thereafter has been nominated as executive member of the central committee for five times and was also appointed as national secretary and general secretary of the party. The idea of fielding strong candidates against top Congress leadership figured in the party discussion when an internal survey indicated that Rae Bareli and Amethi were not impregnable in UP under “the Modi wave”.
The Samajwadi Party had literally swept the Gandhi bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli winning eight of the 10 Assembly seats in the parliamentary constituencies represented by Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi respectively in the 2012 Assembly polls in UP.
According to sources, RSS also pushed the idea that Congress president and vice-president should sweat it out in their respective constituencies rather then seeing the two lok Sabha seats as their pocket boroughs.
The Congress has fielded Rahul Gandhi's key aide Madhusudhan Mistry against Narendra Modi in Vadodara and has said it will nominate a heavyweight against BJP's PM candidate in Varanasi. Digvijay Singh has said he's willing to be Congress candidate in Varanasi. Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said the Congress will soon announce its Varanasi nominee.
The BJP on Monday night also declared to field Bhairon Prasad Mishra from Banda, AC Shanmugam, president of NJP from Vellore, and KM Murugannantham, state general secretary, from Thanjayur.