Amethi will mark Diwali on May 23, exile will end: Irani

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
Amethi, April 4

BJP stalwart and Textile Minister Smriti Irani today launched her election campaign from the Gandhi pocket borough of Amethi, terming sitting MP Rahul Gandhi a “missing parliamentarian who had now proceeded to con the people of Kerala”.

A ballistic Irani “credited people of Amethi” for driving the Congress chief out of UP to Kerala to contest a second seat and said Amethi would celebrate Diwali on May 23, the day its exile will end.

Moments after Gandhi filed his nomination from Wayanad today, Irani arrived at a local school here to address a public meeting where visitors donned “Mai Bhi Chowkidar caps” and saffron hues dominated the spaces.

“Lord Ram was banished into exile for 14 years but Amethi’s exile has extended beyond 15 years. This segment will celebrate Diwali on May 23, the Diwali of development. May 23 will be the day of reckoning for Amethi, which will punish those who did nothing for its people in 15 long years,” Irani said to a predominantly farmers’ gathering.

She rushed to rub in the reality of Gandhi “running away to another seat” and told voters: “Today, the missing MP was in Kerala to file his nomination. I want to ask him if he couldn’t get the people of Amethi one rag of urea in 15 years as MP, what he will do in Kerala except cheating people.”

Irani further hammered the point of Gandhi’s inapproachability and said: “After the 2014 results, farming families regretted that they could not make me win the election and didn’t know how to seek help. But I told them that I have made a promise and will keep it, not because I could not win Amethi but despite it.”

She reminded people how she worked with the Union Agriculture Ministry to help Amethi farmers get access to urea through consignments that were dropped at the Gauriganj train station in Amethi.

She said the Gandhis had held the LS seat for 55 years “without returning anything to the segment”. She also flagged the Congress manifesto, saying it backed anti-national forces by committing itself to the abolition of sedition law.

Guj Cong MLA quits

• Angry over the Congress giving ticket for the Kheda seat to a turncoat, party MLA Kalusinh Dabhi resigned from the primary membership of Congress. He, however, has not resigned from his Assembly seat
• Only last month, five sitting Congress MLAs resigned from the party and the state Assembly and joined the BJP. Four of them have been nominated by BJP to contest the Assembly byelections to be held along with the LS polls on April 23. TNS