BJP’s Smriti Irani trails Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma in Amethi

According to the official ECI website, of the total 976,053 votes cast through EVMs, about 148,000, or 15.2% of the votes had been counted

Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Smriti Irani was trailing Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma by 29,400 votes in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi as of 11:16am, latest figures of the Election Commission of India (ECI) said.

The counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls began at 8am. (PTI file photo)

According to the official ECI website, of the total 976,053 votes cast through EVMs, about 148,000, or 15.2% of the votes had been counted.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Smriti Irani won in Amethi, a constituency long considered a stronghold of the Gandhi family, defeating Rahul Gandhi, who held the seat for 15 years.

Irani defeated the former Congress president by a margin of 55,120 votes.

In their first electoral battle in 2014, Gandhi emerged victorious against the BJP leader.

Amethi had been the Congress party’s bastion till 2019.

The Amethi seat comprises five assembly segments, including Tiloi, Salon, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj, and Amethi.

Voting for the Amethi seat was held in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 20.