Lucknow: Taking the political battle to the Gandhi bastion of Amethi, BJP President Amit Shah will address a mega rally on Tuesday, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Minister Smriti Irani in tow.
Union Cabinet minister Smriti Irani, who successfully managed to reduce Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s victory margin in his pocket borough in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has already declared that Amethi has lost its faith in the Gandhi scion.
Irani arrived a day ahead of the mega show and said, “The people have promised a Congress-free Amethi to Amit Shah in 2014. In the 2017 assembly elections, Amethi ensured that Congress was booted out of the area. Now, Rahul Gandhi has suddenly started visiting Amethi more often but it will do him no good.”
Rahul Gandhi was in Amethi for three days last week. The district administration had first denied him permission to visit, citing “security reasons”, but relented later.
Rahul's visit, planned just ahead of the BJP’s grand display of strength in Amethi, was seen as an attempt to dispel allegations that the Congress leader has been neglecting his constituency. The visit also assumed significance in the wake of the upcoming internal polls in the Congress, in which Rahul is widely tipped to take over party reins.
The BJP mega show on Tuesday is expected to act as a dampener for the big move in Congress ranks.
Tuesday would also be CM Adityanath’s maiden visit to Amethi since he took the reins in March. Adityanath has often referred to Gandhi as shehzade (scion) and vanshwad (dynast) and he is expected to further raise the pitch today.
Few days back the duo of Adityanath and Amit Shah, in an attempt to gain some grounds in Kerala, took out a ‘Janraksha Yatra’ to criticize the state’s Left Front government against its “red terror”. However, Shah abandoned the show midway and Adityanath’s call against “love jihad” and “red terror” didn’t draw much support.
The two BJP big shots are expected to inaugurate a number of healthcare and irrigation projects in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. This would be deemed as the BJP government’s development agenda for the Gandhi pocket borough of Amethi.
Smriti Irani has often accused the Gandhi family of fooling the people of Amethi, Rae Bareli and Sultanpur.
On Monday she said, “It is the BJP that keeps its promises. Even Rahul Gandhi has accepted this in one of his recent speeches. Now we have adopted Amethi and will ensure its all-round development.”
Irani has been a strong opponent to Rahul Gandhi in the last Lok Sabha elections and BJP has made it clear that it wants to capture the Gandhi bastion in 2019.
Part of the strategy is also to corner and confine Rahul Gandhi in Amethi and keep him busy in trying to save his family seat in 2019, so that he has little time for campaigning across the nation in the 2019 general elections.
Meanwhile, Shah would be visiting Sitapur, where besides a public meeting, he would also lay the foundation stone of party offices in 51 districts.
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