NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sharpened its attack on
Rahul Gandhi
soon after the
Congress
party decided to field him from
Rae Bareli
constituency rather than
Amethi
for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Senior leaders from BJP alleged that Rahul Gandhi was scared to contest the polls from Amethi.
Taking a swipe at former Congress president, Union minister and BJP Hamirpur candidate Anurag Thakur said, “Sometimes back Rahul Gandhi used to say ‘daro mat, daro mat’ (don’t be scared), now due to fear, from Amethi to
Wayanad
and Wayanad to Raebareli indicates his scaredness towards defeat taking him everywhere.”
“He was not able to serve justice to his sister (Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) as on one side Robert Vadra was also asking for tickets and on the other side party’s demand was for Priyanka Gandhi, however, her name was not mentioned in the party’s list shows something is going on within Congress party,” he added.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also launched a scathing attack on Gandhi family after Rahul Gandhi’s candidacy was announced and said,”
“‘Daro mat kahate kahate Rahul Gandhi, Amethi se lado mat’
. This has become the new slogan of the Congress party. Today, with this announcement, Congress has confirmed that not a single member of the First family can contest in what they used to call the pocket boroughs of Amethi.”
In the last 50 years, Rahul Gandhi has not done much as in the last 5 years Smriti Irani under the leadership of PM Modi and CM Yogi has delivered. First Amethi rejected them, and they went to Wayanad, now Wayanad rejected them and hence they came to Raebareli,” he further added.
Moreover, BJP leader Amit Malviya also claimed that abandoning Amethi Lok Sabha seat confirms Rahul Gandhi’s admission that he cannot win the elections in Amethi against Smriti Irani.
In a post on X, Amit Malviya said, “Finally, Rahul Gandhi has abandoned Amethi. Losers often do that. So, no surprises there. It is also an admission that Rahul Gandhi can’t win. In which case, why should anyone waste their vote on INDI Alliance? Phase 3 onwards, the voting will be even more in favour of the NDA.”
“It is clear as daylight that the Rahul Gandhi camp doesn’t want the sister to rise, lest she outshines him. How this sibling struggle for power within Congress plays out, remains to be seen. But for now, Priyanka Vadra has lost out, again,” Malviya added.
Rahul Gandhi represents Wayanad constituency from Kerala in the Lok Sabha. He is pitted against BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli which was held by Sonia Gandhi who became a member of the upper house of the parliament.
Rahul’s defeat in Amethi, once considered a Congress ‘pocket borough’, at the hands of Smriti Irani in the 2019 polls was seen as a significant blow to the party’s national prestige.
Meanwhile, Congress party has also named Kishori Lal Sharma, a party loyalist from Amethi, the seat Rahul Gandhi lost in the 2019 general elections to BJP leader Smriti Irani. Irani had earlier filed her nomination as the BJP candidate for Amethi.
Friday is the last date for filing nominations for the seats that will go to the polls on May 20 in the fifth phase of the seven-phase general elections. The party has won the Congress bastion in all but three Lok Sabha elections since 1951. Before Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi had won from Raebareli three times.
