Contesting from Amethi or Raebareli? 'This is BJP's question', quips Rahul as suspense over his candidature continues

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. ANI

Amid speculation that he may also contest from Amethi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday kept up the suspense on his candidature from the high-profile seat, saying that he will follow the orders of party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) which is the highest body to take such decisions.

At a a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav when he was asked whether he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi or Raebareli, Rahul Gandhi quipped, “This is BJP’s question, very good.”

“Whatever order I will get, I will follow it. In our party, all these (selections of candidates) decisions are taken by the CEC,” he added.

While the BJP has re-nominated Smriti Irani from the Amethi seat, Rahul Gandhi, who has  been re-nominated from Kerala’s Wayanad, may also contest from Amethi.

Rahul has won the Amethi seat three consecutive times since 2004. However, Irani won the seat by 55,000 votes in 2019, earning her the tag of ‘giant slayer’.

The Congress leader said there was a strong undercurrent in favour of the INDIA bloc and the BJP would be limited to just 150 seats.

“I do not do prediction of seats. 15-20 days ago I was thinking BJP would win around 180 seats but now I think they will get 150 seats. We are getting reports from every state that we are improving. We have a very strong alliance in Uttar Pradesh and we will perform very well…,” he said.

The Congress leader accused the RSS and BJP of destroying the Constitution and the democratic system and said that the PM and the BJP don’t want to discuss important issues like unemployment and inflation.

“This election is an election of ideology. On the one hand, RSS and BJP are trying to destroy the Constitution and the democratic system, and on the other hand, the INDIA alliance and Congress party are trying to defend and protect the Constitution and democracy. There are 2-3 big issues in the elections. Unemployment is the biggest and inflation is the second biggest but BJP is engaged in creating distractions…Neither the Prime Minister nor the BJP talks about the issues,” said Rahul.

Training his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme, he said it was the the biggest extortion scheme in the world.

“A few days ago, the Prime Minister gave a very long interview to ANI. It was scripted, but it was a flop show. The Prime Minister tried to explain electoral bonds in it. The Prime Minister says that the system of electoral bonds was brought for transparency, to clean politics. If this is true then why was that system cancelled by the Supreme Court. And secondly, if you wanted to bring transparency then why did you hide the names of those who gave money to BJP. And why did you hide the dates on which they gave you the money?” he asked.

“This is the biggest extortion scheme in the world. All the businessmen of India understand and know this and no matter how much clarification the Prime Minister wants to give, it will not make any difference. Because the entire country knows that the Prime Minister is the champion of corruption,” he said.

Rahul said in the last 10 years, PM Modi has reduced the system of employment generation by demonetisation, by implementing wrong GST and by supporting the big billionaires like Adani.

“The first task is to once again strengthen employment, for that we have given 23 ideas in our manifesto, one idea is the revolutionary idea – Right to Apprenticeship. We have decided that we will give the Right to Apprenticeship to all the graduates and diploma holders of Uttar Pradesh. There will be training and we will deposit Rs 1 lakh per year in the bank account of the youth and we are giving these rights to crores of youth…We will make a law for paper leaks as well,” he added.

Meanwhile, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said that INDIA bloc is the new hope in the elections.

“As Rahul ji said that there are many things in his manifesto by which poverty can be eradicated. Adding to that I want to say that the day the farmers of our country will become happy, the day the farmers of the country will start getting remunerative prices for their crops, I understand that all the political parties and especially those who are the partners of INDIA alliance are saying that they will give MSP and the day the Indian government increases the income of the farmers, poverty will go away…,” Yadav said.

The SP chief also attacked the BJP for not only taking corrupts (in their party) but also keeping the money earned by them.

“…’Electoral bond ne inka band baja diya…BJP sabhi bhrashtachiroya ka godaam ban gayi’…They are not only taking corrupts (in their party) but also keeping the money earned by the corrupts…,” said the SP chief.

With inputs from agencies