Rahul Gandhi talks on Congress' Amethi plans

Rahul Gandhi talks on Congress’ Amethi plans

With Congress yet to announce the candidate for the much coveted Amethi seat, senior leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that he would abide by the party’s decision.

“I will abide by the party’s decision on contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi,” Gandhi said at a press conference.

Speculations have been rife over who would contest from Congress’ bastions in Uttar Pradesh Amethi and Raebareli. Gandhi has already filed his nomination to contest from Wayanad, Kerala.

Gandhi in 2019 lost his Amethi seat to Bharatiya Janata Party leader and union minister Smriti Irani, who will be contesting yet again from the constituency.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra recently claimed that the people of Amethi want him to represent them. “The country wants me to be in active politics. If the Congress party feels that I can bring a change, I will come into active politics. It is not necessary that I will contest from Amethi. People from Moradabad and Haryana are also requesting me to contest from their constituency,” Vadra said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a jibe at Gandhi recently, saying that ‘yuvraj’ of the grand old party could not protect Congress’ UP bastion and came to Kerala. Irani too has criticised Gandhi for neglecting the needs of the residents of Amethi while in power.

“The government at the Centre was of his ‘mataji’ (mother, Sonia Gandhi) and that in UP had their support. But Rahul Gandhi never thought about the development of Amethi,” said Irani.

Irani said the Gandhi family, especially Rahul Gandhi, wanted the people of Amethi to remain poor. That is why they cannot digest it when a poor man’s son becomes the prime servant of India.

“What they (Congress) did not do in 50 years and what Rahul Gandhi did not do in 15 years, the double engine government has done in Amethi in five years,” she added.

(With agency inputs)

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