NEW DELHI: Weeks after the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced, Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Raebareli MP Rahul Gandhi who is the senior leader of the Congress party made a public appeal asking his party workers and others to maintain dignity and refrain from "using derogatory language and being nasty” towards former Union minister Smriti Irani and senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Irani vacated her government bungalow at 28 Tughlak Crescent in the prestigious Lutyens' Delhi, weeks after losing the Amethi parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh to Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin of over 160,000 votes. Her departure from the official residence flared a surge of criticism and scorn from some on social media, with supporters of Gandhi and the Congress party labelling her defeat as 'humiliating' and reminding her of the instance when Rahul Gandhi had to vacate his official residence.  They also referenced her previous statements acclaiming Gandhi's loss in Amethi, where she had expressed pride in having "sent him packing".

Taking to social media platform X, Rahul wrote: “Winning and losing happen in life. I urge everyone to refrain from using derogatory language and being nasty towards Smt. Smriti Irani or any other leader for that matter,” and further added, “Humiliating and insulting people is a sign of weakness, not strength.” His remarks come amid a flurry of remarks and memes on Irani after she vacated her official bungalow following her defeat in the Lok Sabha election to the Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma in Amethi. 

Both the leaders Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani have faced each other in political disagreements and public exchanges which intensified in 2014 when Irani stood against Gandhi in the Lok Sabha elections in the Amethi constituency, considered to be a stronghold of the Gandhi family. Although she lost in 2014, she secured a win in subsequent elections in 2019, when she was hailed as a “giant slayer” for defeating Rahul Gandhi, but lost to Sharma by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes in 2024. Rahul, meanwhile, had won from the Congress bastion of Raebareli with a majority of 4 lakh votes.