Amid the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Union minister and BJP candidate from Amethi Lok Sabha seat Smriti Irani said that the people of the constituency have understood that development is possible when the leader has good character and the government is clear in its policies, the ANI news agency reported. .
“The people of Amethi have accepted me as their family. I am now a voter in Amethi. The people have understood that if the government is clear with its policy and the leader has good character, then it is possible to achieve a lot of development in a very short time. “Smriti Irani told ANI on Monday.
“The Congress leadership is preparing to carry out an analysis of its losses in Amethi after the declaration of results,” he told ANI.
Earlier in the day, launching a scathing attack on the Congress Party, he alleged that if the Congress comes to power, it will overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on Ram Mandir and build a mosque there.
Irani was addressing a Nukkad Sabha at Babupur village of Gauriganj in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
“If there had been a congressman, a dalaal (middleman) would have stolen vaccines; if there had been a congressman, someone would have stolen the ration with fake fingerprints and the ration could never have reached the people,” he said. Irani, ANI reported. .
“Rahul Gandhi was MP from Amethi for so many years, can you tell us where exactly ‘Tikariya’ village is located?” he further asked.
Mocking the Congress, he asked people to light fire in the Lanka Congress to vote against the Congress Party.
In a veiled reference to former Congress leader Pramod Krishnam’s remarks, Irani said: “A leader who was associated with the Congress for 32 years has said that if Rahul Gandhi comes to power, he will overturn the Supreme Court ruling on Ram Mandir and again facilitating a mosque there… is my call to the people to become the Hanuman of Democracy and light a fire in the “Lanka` Congress”.
The Union Minister is seeking re-election from Amethi, a seat she wrested from Rahul Gandhi in 2019, ending the Gandhi family’s tenure there. Irani defeated Rahul by over 55,000 votes in the last general election.
Rahul Gandhi was a three-time MP from the seat from 2004 to 2019. The seat was represented by Rajiv Gandhi in the past. Sonia Gandhi also won from the seat in 1999, before passing the baton to Rahul in 2004.
Rahul Gandhi will contest the elections from RaeBareli, the seat vacated recently by his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi when she moved to Rajya Sabha. This time, Irani is pitted against Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma, a former Gandhi family loyalist.
Voting in both seats will be held in the fifth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections 2024 on May 7. Voting for 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in all seven phases. The vote count is scheduled for June 4.
(With contributions from ANI)