UP: 'Does Rahul Gandhi wear janeu only during elections?' asks Smriti Irani

LUCKNOW/AMETHI: While Congressmen were grappling with the idea of a missing Rahul Gandhi, BJP MP Smriti Irani was swift off the blocks to lambast the Gandhi scion, moments after touchdown at Lucknow airport. “Does Rahul wear a ‘janeu’ (sacred thread) only during elections at MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh,” she asked.

Amethi is no more a Congress stronghold, Smriti said. “Had that been the case, the party would not have lost all Assembly seats in Amethi in the UP assembly poll. Of five assembly seats, four were bagged by BJP and one (Gauriganj) by Samajwadi Party,” she said. Irani said while BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and the state were developing Amethi, its very own MP could barely find time to visit his constituency in last five years.

Posters attacking MP CM Kamal Nath were put up to deface Congress hoardings, welcoming Rahul Gandhi, across Amethi on Friday.

“We all want to welcome Rahul in Amethi. Let him see a developed Amethi,” said Irani, who has been nursing the constituency despite losing to Rahul by a margin of nearly one lakh votes. “Wo rishton ki duhai dete hain par kaam nahi aate hain,” she said, in an apparent reference to Rahul. She claimed the ruling BJP ensured various facilities for Amethi, which were otherwise denied by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, his BSP counterpart Mayawati and even Congress. The contest between the two leaders was out in the open even on Friday as both BJP and Congress workers vied with each other to put up posters of Irani and Rahul.

Congress workers put up posters welcoming Rahul as ‘2018 ke vijeta ka 2019 mein swagat’ in Amethi. Playing the soft Hindutva card, Congress workers also put up posters of Rahul’s recent visits to Kailash Mansarovar. At the same time, posters of Irani dotted streets, referring her as ‘Didi’. “I came here as BJP candidate in 2014 but have turned as Didi,” she said on her 28th visit to the Amethi since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

“One cannot predict with clarity as to who will emerge victorious when elections are held,” said Vinod Pandey, who runs a tent shop and has once been associated with the Congress. “Bus Amethi ka naam na dubey...Rahul pe vishwas hai,” said Babu Lal Pasi who works as a labourer.

Earlier in the day, Irani inaugurated a shelter home in Jais before heading to Gauriganj to inaugurate a CT scan machine in Amethi district hospital. She also held a meeting with party workers in Haliapur gram sabha.