Rahul concedes defeat, trailing by over 40K votes in Amethi

Amethi, May 23
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday conceded defeat from his traditional Amethi seat to Union Minister Smriti Irani, of the BJP, even as the Election Commission continued to update the margin by 44,082 votes.

Around 7 p.m., the results flashing on the EC site, showed Irani has polled 3,32,842 votes while Gandhi, who had been winning the seat since 2004, got only 2,88,730 votes.

The results will be announced only after the VVPAT slips were tallied, an EC official told IANS.

Elections in Amethi was closely contested with Irani having maintained her lead since morning. It was only in the afternoon that the margin between her and Rahul Gandhi began increasing.