PM Modi doesn't hear people's plights, talks 'irrelevant' things: Priyanka in Amethi

Amethi (UP), May 14 (PTI) Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not hearing the people's plights and talking "irrelevant" things.

Priyanka Gandhi addressed an election meeting organised in Mohiya Kesariya in support of the Congress candidate from Amethi, Kishori Lal Sharma.

In her 45-minute-long speech, she accused the prime minister of not loving the people and not visiting any farmer's house.

"Yesterday he held a road show in Varanasi. He stood on a high vehicle and waved while standing among the security personnel. How will he know what your sorrow is? (He) is seen only with 'seths' (businessmen)," she said.

Making a comparison with her brother, Priyanka Gandhi said Modi never hears the people's plight. On the other hand, her brother Rahul Gandhi, who the people defeated in Amethi, walked 4,000 kilometres from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to listen to the problems of the countrymen, she said.

Modi held a six-kilometre-long road show in Varanasi on Monday, a day before filing nomination papers from the constituency for the third consecutive election.

Hitting out at Modi, she said, "A person like the prime minister, who holds the highest post in the country, does not love the people of the country. If he has come during an election campaign, he should at least say what he has done in 10 years. He is speaking irrelevant ('fizool') things with you." Priyanka Gandhi appealed to the people to raise their voice and tell Modi that that they do not want to hear about buffaloes, 'mangalsutra', and temples and mosques at the time of elections. She asked them to tell the prime minister to talk about the solutions to their problems.

"If you become aware, the leaders will become 'majboor' (helpless)," she added.

She said amazing politics is happening in the country. The BJP leaders, including the prime minister and the Amethi MP (Smriti Irani) think that there is no accountability towards the public. They think that they will take their vote on the basis of religion, she alleged.

Irani had defeated Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Praising former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Not only Rajiv Gandhi, BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also a decent human being. He had a respect for the people. He understood that there is some accountability towards the people and some work has to be done." She said Modi cannot say what he has done for the farmers. He distracts the attention of the people by talking about here and there, she said.

Levelling allegations of corruption against Modi, Priyanka Gandhi said, "He came up with the biggest corruption scheme of electoral bonds in which the name of the person donating used to be a secret." Without naming Union minister and the BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from Amethi, Irani, the Congress general secretary accused her of doing negative politics.

"In the last five to ten years, a new type of politics has come up in which there is no name of service or respect. She (Irani) had only one aim that she would contest the elections against Rahul Gandhi and defeat him.

"Her motive has never been positive, it has been negative. She came here to fulfill the purpose of her politics. The purpose has been fulfilled. My brother lost the last election and then there is no sign of development or work," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi claimed that the development of Amethi took place when her father Rajiv Gandhi, mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi represented the constituency.

Amethi will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in the state on May 20. PTI