Smriti Irani topples Rahul Gandhi in Amethi by 55,120 votes

BJP leader Smriti Irani on Friday won Uttar Pradesh's Amethi constituency with a margin of 55,120 votes against Congress candidate Rahul Gandhi.

Speaking to ANI, Irani said: "I am happy that Rahul Gandhi has expressed faith in PM Modi's leadership. The people of Amethi have shown their faith in us through their votes and I am thankful to them. Even after I lost the elections in 2014, I worked for the people of Amethi. Now that I have won, I will serve them again."

Amethi is considered a stronghold of the Congress party since years. Irani polled a total of 4,67,598 votes. Gandhi has been winning on the seat since 2004.

Despite the poor performance of the party in 2014 general elections at Centre, the Congress president had defeated Irani on the seat with a margin of 1,07,903 votes.

At the national level, BJP, whose campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on muscular nationalism and a strident anti-Congress plank has won 288 seats and is leading on 15 seats, as per the latest details updated on the website of the Election Commission on 6:30 am.

The Lok Sabha polls that commenced on April 11 and wrapped up on May 19, saw approximately 900 million voters exercising their franchise and deciding the fate of over 8,000 candidates across 542 seats in the country. Out of those candidates, 724 were women and four were transgender.