Shah hints Smriti will take on Rahul again in 2019
BJP chief says she has worked hard and he’s confident the party won’t have to make promises
AMETHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Tuesday virtually indicated that union minister Smriti Irani will take on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi again in the 2019 polls.
“In my 35 years of public life, I have never seen a winner desert his constituency and a runner-up work for it. But that has been the case in Amethi for Smritiji has passionately nurtured this constituency. That is why I am confident when we come to campaign here in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, we won’t make any tall promises. We will tell you all that we have already done,” said Shah.
Shah, Irani and chief minister Yogi Adityanath were here to address a rally. The trio also launched 21 projects.
Irani had cut Rahul’s victory margin by 200,000 votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Since then the BJP has been growing in the Congress bastion, winning four of the five assembly seats under Amethi Lok Sabha constituency in the 2017 UP assembly polls.
Barring Amethi and Rae Bareli, the Congress did not win
In my 35 years of public life, I have never seen a winner desert his constituency and a runnerup work for it. But that has been the case in Amethi for Smritiji has passionately nurtured this constituency AMIT SHAH, BJP chief
any seat in the last Lok Sabha election in UP. The Samajwadi Party won five Lok Sabha seats.
Of these seven seats that the BJP failed to win, Shah has identified Amethi as the ‘most vulnerable’. The saffron strategists believe that the party could surprise the Congress here in 2019.
Rae Bareli and Amethi are now among those seats where Shah has tasked the cadre to expand the party’s presence.
“Someone who cannot nurture his own constituency can hardly be expected to lead the party and the nation,” said UP BJP leader Hero Bajpai afterwards, justifying the BJP attack on the threetime Amethi MP. He is also -charge of adjacent Rae Bareli. Daljeet Kori, a BJP lawmaker, said “didi (Irani) will contest and win from Amethi.”
Irani and Adityanath lobbed a series of accusations at the Congress in general and Rahul in particular. Adityanath blamed the Congress for the rise of the ‘middleman’ culture. The Tuesday’s rally was held at a site land adjacent to the Samrat cycle factory campus. In 2015, Irani had claimed that the land for the cycle factory was usurped by the Congress. The accusation had led to a defamation notice.
Adityanath and Irani briefly spoke of the Samrat cycle land controversy in their speeches.
The BJP chief targeted virtually the entire Congress leadership right from Indira Gandhi, her sons Rajiv and Sanjay and Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, all of whom have represented the Amethi-Rae Bareli-Sultanpur belt over the years.
He said 106 schemes were launched by Modi government and added, “Shayad Rahul baba ko 106 ki ginti bhi nahi aati hai and that’s why he is asking these questions to us (probably he doesn’t know the numbers up to 106 and hence he is questioning development under Modi).”