Vehicles outside Amethi Congress office vandalised; party blames BJP

Unidentified people vandalised vehicles parked outside the Congress office in Gauriganj, Amethi, on Sunday (May 5) night, prompting the party to blame the BJP for the attack.

This comes within two days of Congress finally fielding long-term confidante Kishori Lal Sharma from the prestigious seat that Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP’s Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Irani is the saffron party’s candidate for the seat this time too, while Rahul Gandhi will contest the Rae Bareli seat, vacated by his mother Sonia Gandhi. These two seats in UP have traditionally been the Gandhi-Nehru family’s strongholds.

Congress blames BJP

As Congress workers took to the streets in protest against the attack, police reached the spot and spoke with them. They have reportedly registered a case against unknown persons and launched a probe.

The Congress shared a video on its X handle, showing car windows smashed and the glass pieces scattered on the road.

The X post, in Hindi, read (translated): “Smriti Irani and BJP workers are badly scared in Amethi, UP. Frustrated by the defeat they saw, BJP goons armed with sticks and rods reached outside the Congress office in Amethi and vandalised vehicles parked there. There has been a deadly attack on Congress workers and people of Amethi. Many people are badly injured in this attack. During the incident, vehicles of local people were also damaged.”

The party also claimed in the post that the “police administration remained a mute spectator during the entire incident”. It added, “This incident is a witness that BJP is going to lose badly in Amethi.”

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate also took to X to post about the incident, alleging that it was the BJP’s “hooliganism”.

“Vehicles parked outside the Congress office in Amethi were vandalised. The police remained a silent spectator and the BJP workers continued with their hooliganism. The wind has changed, breaking vehicles will not solve the problem, BJP people,” read her (translated) tweet in Hindi.

Priyanka’s campaign

The incident came hours before Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spearheads the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Rae Bareli and Amethi. She is scheduled to camp in these constituencies from Monday to ensure the party’s victory in the two high-profile seats, sources told PTI.

Both the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats will go to polls on May 20, in the fifth round of the seven-phase general election. Priyanka is supposed to camp there until the end of polls.

Initially, there was speculation that Priyanka might make her poll debut with either of the two seats. However, Priyanka has decided not to contest but taken it upon herself to take charge of the campaigns in the two family bastions as brother Rahul campaigns across India.

Priyanka will hold hundreds of “nukkad sabhas”, meetings, and door-to-door campaign programmes, sources told PTI. “The centre will be Rae Bareli where she will be stationed at a guest house. From booth management to outreach, everything would be handled by her,” the source said.

Already, outreach has started with freedom fighters’ families and those who have had familial ties with the Gandhi family for decades, the sources said.

She will also monitor the digital and social media campaign in the two constituencies, they said.

(With agency inputs)