Congress president Rahul Gandhi may have been able to enter the Parliament via the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala but it was his decision to also contest from the southern constituency appeared to have played a key role in his undoing in his traditional bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Rahul, a three-time MP from Amethi, a seat, which his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi also represented in the Lok Sabha, lost to union minister Smriti Irani this time.
Smriti had taken full advantage of the Congress president's decision to contest from Wayanad and said at all her election rallies that Rahul apprehended defeat in Amethi and had therefore shifted to a safe seat.
Even prime minister Narendra Modi made it part of his speeches at his election meetings in Uttar Pradesh.
Local Congress leaders in Amethi admitted that the decision to also contest from another safer seat might have been an important factor behind Rahul's defeat in the Nehru-Gandhi bastion.
''It (decision to contest from Wayanad) may have played a role...the BJP made it a big issue here and the Congress had a tough time in countering the same,'' said an Amethi based scribe while speaking to DH over phone.
He also said that the results could have been different had the Congress made it clear that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would contest from Amethi if Rahul won from both the seats.
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