Congress feels worst behind it for two reasons, anti-incumbency and alliance with SP & BSP
ET Bureau|
Updated: Oct 11, 2017, 12.10 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Congress has dismissed BJP’s Amethi pitch as a “typical hype making exercise” in Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency and said Union minister Smriti Irani “is a mere pawn in BJP’s losing game in Amethi”.
“Initially the talk was about PM Modi leading this BJP programme in Amethi but now Amit Shah has been sent instead as everybody knows this is only a typical hype-making exercise with no ground impact in Amethi,” Raj Babbar, head of Congress’ UP unit, told ET from Dehradun.
He further said: “I can only say Smriti Irani is becoming a mere pawn in BJP’s losing game in Amethi. Smriti ji has already lost the two elections she has contested so far; first in Delhi and then in Amethi. Since she is already in the Rajya Sabha, maybe she thinks it is fine to lose more elections.”
Reacting to Amit Shah charging Gandhis with ignoring developmental works in Amethi and attacking Rahul Gandhi by saying he could not see the development work of the Modi government as he was “wearing Italian glasses”, Babbar said: “People are no more interested in listening to the typical rhetoric of Amit Shah as people now only want him to speak about his son’s business deals… Rahul Gandhi does not wear glasses but he is fully tuned in to the aspirations of the people of Amethi, and Amit Shah, despite wearing glasses, can’t even see the political reality of Amethi, where people treat Gandhis as their family.”
Babbar’s comments notwithstanding, though, Congress appears to have taken note of the all-out efforts of BJP in Amethi, where Rahul Gandhi’s victory margin came down to 1.08 lakh votes in 2014 from more than three lakh in the previous general election in 2009. Worse, the combined tally of Congress in the five assembly segments in Amethi district in this year’s state polls showed the party actually trailing BJP by 1.09 lakh votes.
“But parliamentary poll in Amethi has always been a different game as people there rally behind the Gandhis in a big way,” said a Congress leader.
While expecting BJP to intensify its mobilisation in Amethi in the run-up to the next Lok Sabha polls, Congress’ hopes of retaining the Gandhi bastion are dependent on two factors. The first is the possibility of a Congress-SP-BSP alliance against BJP. And secondly, the party hopes that unlike in 2014 and in the 2017 state polls, BJP will face a double anti-incumbency due to its five-year rule at the Centre and two years of the Yogi Adityanath regime in the state.
“Initially the talk was about PM Modi leading this BJP programme in Amethi but now Amit Shah has been sent instead as everybody knows this is only a typical hype-making exercise with no ground impact in Amethi,” Raj Babbar, head of Congress’ UP unit, told ET from Dehradun.
He further said: “I can only say Smriti Irani is becoming a mere pawn in BJP’s losing game in Amethi. Smriti ji has already lost the two elections she has contested so far; first in Delhi and then in Amethi. Since she is already in the Rajya Sabha, maybe she thinks it is fine to lose more elections.”
Reacting to Amit Shah charging Gandhis with ignoring developmental works in Amethi and attacking Rahul Gandhi by saying he could not see the development work of the Modi government as he was “wearing Italian glasses”, Babbar said: “People are no more interested in listening to the typical rhetoric of Amit Shah as people now only want him to speak about his son’s business deals… Rahul Gandhi does not wear glasses but he is fully tuned in to the aspirations of the people of Amethi, and Amit Shah, despite wearing glasses, can’t even see the political reality of Amethi, where people treat Gandhis as their family.”
Babbar’s comments notwithstanding, though, Congress appears to have taken note of the all-out efforts of BJP in Amethi, where Rahul Gandhi’s victory margin came down to 1.08 lakh votes in 2014 from more than three lakh in the previous general election in 2009. Worse, the combined tally of Congress in the five assembly segments in Amethi district in this year’s state polls showed the party actually trailing BJP by 1.09 lakh votes.
“But parliamentary poll in Amethi has always been a different game as people there rally behind the Gandhis in a big way,” said a Congress leader.
While expecting BJP to intensify its mobilisation in Amethi in the run-up to the next Lok Sabha polls, Congress’ hopes of retaining the Gandhi bastion are dependent on two factors. The first is the possibility of a Congress-SP-BSP alliance against BJP. And secondly, the party hopes that unlike in 2014 and in the 2017 state polls, BJP will face a double anti-incumbency due to its five-year rule at the Centre and two years of the Yogi Adityanath regime in the state.
