Amit Shah-led team BJP heads to Amethi

NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah will visit the Gandhi bastion Amethi on Tuesday, three days after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi went there and will launch a number of developmental works and projects.

Union minister Smriti Irani who was the BJP candidate against Rahul Gandhi in the last Lok Sabha election reached Amethi on Monday to oversee the preparations for Shah's meetings. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also expected to meet the two BJP leaders. Shah's previous visits to Amethi were during the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, while Irani last visited in May. Ministers Manoj Sinha and Nitin Gadkari are also expected to join Shah's rally.

Irani who arrived in Amethi on Monday went to Salon, Gauriganj and other places in Amethi meeting BJP supporters. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, the BJP won six of the 10 assembly seats falling under the parliamentary constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli. Four of them were in Amethi.

Party sources said the upcoming visit of the senior BJP leaders was aimed at sending a clear message that the party will fight to win the seat of Amethi in 2019 and that it is them and not the congress bringing in all-round development of the palce.

Rahul Gandhi during his visit on October 5 had accused the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh of re-inaugurating the projects launched by the previous UPA regime in the district. Gandhi had asked Modi to address the unemployment problem and farmers' issues and dared him to allow the Congress to resolve the problems in six months.

Amit Shah is expected to address a public meeting near in Gauriganj while other ministers to join him are expected to lay foundation stones and inaugurate an FM radio station, Sainik School, Amethi district headquarters and civil court building, skill training colleges and other railway and road projects.

"Rahul Gandhi's margin was reduced from 3.70 lakh votes in 2009 to 1.07 lakh in 2014. This shows the voter base of the Congress is receding. This is the best time for the party to make a move and own this place," a BJP leader said.