Amethi district

Amethi is one of the 75 districts of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This district is a part of Ayodhya division in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh. It covers an area of 2,329.11 km2. Gauriganj is the administrative headquarters of the district.

It is better known due to being the seat of power of the Indian Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty since 1980. The former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandsons Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi (the sons of Indira Gandhi), Rajiv's widow Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi have, at one time or another, represented this constituency. However, this changed in 2019 when Rahul was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections by former TV actress Smriti Irani of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Irani was defeated in 2024 by Kishori Lal Sharma of Indian National Congress.

Overview
Amethi was the 72nd district of Uttar Pradesh which came into existence on 1 July 2010 by merging three tehsils of the erstwhile Sultanpur district namely Amethi, Gauriganj and Musafirkhana and two tehsils of the erstwhile Raebareli district, namely, Salon and Tiloi. In 2013, however the Salon sub-district moved from Amethi district back to Raebareli district in Lucknow division.

Amethi is a major town of district and also a municipal board.

History
Amethi lies on the Raebareli-Amethi-Sultanpur road about 40 km south-west of Sultanpur city. Also called as Raipur-Amethi, of which Raipur belonged to the Raja of Amethi who lived at Ram Nagar. His ancestors used to live in Raipur-Phulwari where the old fort is still found. Here is also a temple called Hanumangarhi and a mosque both built about hundred years ago. About three kilometres north of Ram Nagar there is a tomb of the famous poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi (best remembered for his epic composition Padmavat) where he died, and the fort was built by Bandhalgoti Rajas.

Change of status and name
Chief minister Mayawati had ordered formation of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar district on 21 May 2003 but following a change of guard her arch political rival Mulayam Singh Yadav had scrapped it on 23 November the same year. The Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar district included within it five tehsils of Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts which form part of Amethi constituency. In December 2003, a lawyer of Amethi, Uma Shankar Pandey, had challenged the order scrapping the formation of the district in the High Court.

BSP won the 2007 Uttar Pradesh state legislative assembly election and Chief Minister Mayawati ordered the formation of the district again. The district came into existence on 1 July 2010 by merging three  tehsils of the erstwhile Sultanpur district, namely, Amethi, Gauriganj and Musafirkhana and two tehsils of the erstwhile Raebareli district, namely, Salon and Tiloi and was named as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar.

Demographics
In the 2011 Indian census used the old district definitions, and so did not list Amethi district. The sub-districts (tehsils) that form Amethi district had the following populations:

Amethi district had a population of 2,050,133. Amethi district had a sex ratio of 976 females per 1000 males and a literacy rate of 59.14%. 79,759 (3.89%) lived in urban areas. Scheduled Castes made up 512,215 (24.98%) of the population.

Languages
At the time of the 2011 census, 81.32% of the population spoke Hindi, 17.16% Awadhi and 1.28% Urdu as their first language. The main language in the district is Awadhi but most people return their language as 'Hindi' on the census.

Transport
Amethi is connected to the major cities in Uttar Pradesh and North-Eastern India via Indian Railways and roads. It has direct trains connecting with major cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Dehradun, Haridwar, Allahabad, Varanasi, Kolkata, Puri, Bhopal, Mumbai and Bangalore. Ayodhya International Airport (84 km [52 mi]) and Prayagraj Airport (104 km [65 mi]) are the nearby airports from Amethi.

A number of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation buses ply from Amethi.

University and colleges

 * Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology,
 * Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi,
 * Government Medical College, Amethi
 * Footwear Design and Development Institute
 * Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University
 * Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Satellite Campus, Amethi
 * IIIT Tikaemafi, Amethi
 * Rajarshi Rananjay Singh College Of Pharmacy
 * Government Girlas Polytechnic, Amethi
 * Sanjay Gandhi Polytechnic
 * Rajarshi Rananjay Sinh Institute of Management & Technology (RRSIMT AMETHI), Amethi

Divisions
The district comprises 4 tehsils, 13 development blocks, 14 police stations and 401 lekhpal areas.

The district comprises four Vidhan Sabha constituencies, namely, Gauriganj, Jagdishpur, Amethi and Tiloi. All of these are part of Amethi Lok Sabha constituency. It is surrounded by the constituency districts of Ayodhya, Sultanpur and Barabanki.

Notable people

 * Chandrama Devi Agrahari
 * Rahul Gandhi (MP)
 * Rajiv Gandhi (former Prime Minister of India)
 * Sanjay Gandhi (former MP)
 * Smriti Irani (former MP and former cabinet minister)
 * Malik Muhammad Jayasi (poet, writer)
 * Leela Mishra (Indian actress)
 * Manoj Muntashir (lyricist)
 * Rakesh Pandey (writer and author)
 * Pankaj Singh (Indian cricketer)
 * Suresh Pasi (MLA and former minister)
 * Jagdish Piyush (writer, educationist, Indian National Congress politician)
 * Gayatri Prasad Prajapati (former MLA and former cabinet minister)
 * Maharaji Prajapati (MLA)
 * Syed Sibtey Razi (former Governor of Assam, former Governor of Jharkhand, former MP)
 * Babu Himmat Sah (Ruler of Kohra (estate))
 * Kishori Lal Sharma (MP)
 * Akshay Pratap Singh (MLC and former MP)
 * Ameeta Singh (former MLA)
 * Babu Bhoop Singh (Ruler of Kohra (estate) and leader in the Indian Rebellion of 1857)
 * Deepak Singh (former MLC)
 * Garima Singh (former MLA)
 * Rakesh Pratap Singh (MLA)
 * Ravindra Pratap Singh (former MP and former MLA)
 * Rudra Pratap Singh (former MP, former MLA and former MLC)
 * Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh (MLA and minister)
 * Shailendra Pratap Singh (MLC)
 * Sanjaya Sinh (former MP and former cabinet minister)