Amethi Lok Sabha seat, one of the 80 in Uttar Pradesh, is being closely watched this election. The constituency, a Congress bastion from where a win for party president Rahul Gandhi was a sure shot, has become a difficult battle for him this time. 

Smriti Irani, a former TV actress-turned-politician, who polled more than 3 lakh votes in 2014 Lok Sabha, narrowing the victory margin of Rahul Gandhi to one lakh, is again trying her luck. The Union Minister who made numerous visit to Amethi during last five years, is confident of unseating Mr Gandhi as Amethi MP. 

However, she has her task cut out in this central UP Lok Sabha seat which has sent four members of the Nehru-Gandhi family - Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi - to Lok Sabha. Rahul Gandhi, who made his political debut from Amethi, looks to win from here for the fourth consecutive term. 

However, his decision to contest from Wayanad in Lok Sabha has not sent a good message in this rural constituency with his opponent Smriti Irani latching on to it to allege that the Congress chief is scared that he might lose. 

On Friday, Rahul made an emotional appeal to the voters of his Lok Sabha constituency ahead of the polling day and promised to give momentum to the development works allegedly "blocked" by the BJP government.

"It is my promise to the people of Amethi that as soon as the Congress forms its government at the Centre, the schemes blocked by the BJP will be started. On May 6, vote in large numbers to bring back this member of the family," the three-time MP from the seat said in the letter.

The Congress president said his "Amethi pariwar" is aware that at the time of elections, those in the BJP start a "factory of lies" and run "rivers of cash" to draw voters, adding that the saffron party is not aware that Amethi's strength is its honesty, integrity and simplicity.

Irani, who is actively campaigning in Amethi and claims to have a lot of work done in the constituency even without being the MP, has attacked the Congress president as the "missing MP". Earlier this week, she said the Congress president has now become "a missing candidate as well" after remaining a "missing MP".

This is the second time Irani is taking on Gandhi in the Congress bastion, after an unsuccessful bid in 2014. She has continuously raised the issue of Congress allegedly overlooking the constituents in Amethi.

For this election, the BJP has sent its top leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, to campaign in Amethi, which has remained with the Congress except in 1977 and 1998.

Also, Gandhi is contesting from a second seat in Kerala in this election. The Congress has pitched the choice of Wayanad as an attempt by it to bridge the "north-south divide".

As Gandhi crisscrosses the country for campaigning, Priyanka Gandhi has held the ground in Amethi, raising mostly local issues faced by the people. She has also targeted the top BJP leadership on the issue of nationalism, which the ruling party has made a strong campaign issue.

UP is facing a three-pronged battle between the BJP, the Congress and BSP-SP-RLD alliance. Under the alliance's seat-sharing formula, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on 38 Lok Sabha seats of the total 80 seats, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party on 37 seats and the Chaudhary Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on three seats. The alliance has left two for Congress' Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Rahul Gandhi (Amethi). 

The polling for 14 Lok Sabha seats in UP will be held in the fifth phase on May. In 2014, the BJP won 12 of these 14 seats in the state. Only Amethi and Raebareli, traditional bastions of the Congress, were won by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi respectively. 

The counting of votes of the Lok Sabha election 2019 will be conducted on May 23.

(With PTI inputs)