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World / Asia

India's Rahul Gandhi loses parliamentary seat in family bastion

Published: 23 May 2019 - 03:26 pm | Last Updated: 17 Nov 2021 - 08:19 pm
FILE PHOTO: Indian National Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi (C) and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (centre R) gesture to supporters on Rahul's visit to file his candidacy nomination in Kalpetta town in the Wayanad region of southern Kerala state.  AFP / STR

FILE PHOTO: Indian National Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi (C) and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (centre R) gesture to supporters on Rahul's visit to file his candidacy nomination in Kalpetta town in the Wayanad region of southern Kerala state. AFP / STR

Reuters

NEW DELHI:  Rahul Gandhi, the president of India's opposition Congress party, said he had lost his own parliament seat in a family borough in a northern state in the biggest upset of the election on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party handed a heavy defeat to the Congress and regional parties and Gandhi could not save his own seat in the constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state.

Gandhi said his opponent, cabinet minister Smriti Irani, had won the election in Amethi, which his family has held almost continuously for the last four decades.

Television channel CNN News18 said Gandhi, however, had won from a constituency in southern India, the second place he chose to run from in the election. (Reporting by Shounak Dasgupta; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Nick Macfie)