Rahul Gandhi 'insulted' people of Amethi in Wayanad, claims Smriti Irani

Amethi (UP), Mar 16 (PTI) Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday made a scathing attack on former Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleging that he paid no attention on the development of Amethi when his mother's government was at the Centre and his colleague Akhilesh Yadav's government in Uttar Pradesh.

They talked about Amethi being (their) family but did not fulfill the family responsibilities, Irani said.

The minister was addressing a programme organised at Kaliji Maidan in Visheshwarganj after laying the foundation stone of doubling of Amethi to Kithawar (Pratapgarh) road.

"The Namdars ruled Delhi on the support of the people of Amethi but did not think about Amethi, especially Rahul Gandhi did not pay any attention to the development of Amethi," Irani said.

The BJP leader said the work, which was not done in 50 years, was done in Amethi under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, adding the present government has shown this in five years.

Stressing that Prime Minister Modi had come to Amethi in 2019 and said that he has come for bringing a change and the way he has done development work in the last five years, Amethi looks changed today, Irani who is the sitting MP of Amethi said.

Talking to the media later, she said "Mataji's government was running at the Centre and his colleague Akhilesh Yadav's government was running in Uttar Pradesh but Rahul Gandhi ignored Amethi, hurt the sentiments of the people of Amethi and did not do any development work." "Whatever he said regarding the people of Amethi after going to Wayanad was a direct insult to the sentiments of the people of Amethi. The same Amethi which took him to the heights, he insulted the people of Amethi in Wayanad," she added.

When asked about the Congress not declaring its candidate in Amethi so far, Irani said "It is the result of 50 years and five years of development works that Congress is not able to muster the courage to field a candidate from here. They have now realised that Amethi is not with them, it (Amethi) is with development and development has been done by Narendra Modi." Saying that Gandhi-Nehru family talked about their family relations with Amethi, she stressed they, however, did not fulfil the duty attached with it (family).

After losing the elections, Rahul Gandhi was not seen in Amethi. He left Amethi destitute. No one leaves his family destitute in this manner. Anyone who says this is his family also fulfills his responsibility towards it. Be it the time of Corona or any other problem, neither Rahul nor Priyanka was seen anywhere, she said.

To a question on the coming together of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, Irani said that she has seen all this earlier also. The pairing is not visible anywhere. Akhilesh is not visible and he also knows that there is no one with him in Amethi for the assembly elections, Irani said.

She stressed that there has been rapid development in Amethi in the past five years under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and gave an account of the various works undertaken in her constituency. PTI