Cong leaders perched on bicycles roamed around streets of Amethi: Smriti Irani takes dig at SP-Cong combine

AMETHI: BJP leader Smriti Irani on Friday accused Rahul Gandhi of "insulting" the people of Amethi and said he had never contested the elections from the constituency alone but with the help of 'bicycle', in an apparent reference to the Samajwadi Party.

'Bicycle' is the Samajwadi Party's election symbol.

"He is the owner of his party, while I am a simple worker of my party," Irani told reporters here on reports that the Gandhi scion would contest from Amethi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

"In a democracy, anyone has the right to contest from anywhere. But when he left Amethi and went to south India, he insulted the people of Amethi... which people here have not forgotten," she said.

Irani, the Union Women and Child Development minister, was here to inaugurate a programme at a hospital in Jagdishpur town. She was apparently referring to Gandhi's statement in February 2021 in Kerala.

"For the first 15 years, I was a member of Parliament in the north. So, I had got used to a different type of politics. And for me coming to Kerala was very refreshing because suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially, but going into detail in issues," Gandhi had said.

Asked if she will contest the elections from two places like Gandhi, who contested from Wayanad in Kerala as well as Amethi in 2019, Irani said, "The habit of running away is theirs, not mine."

Launching a scathing attack on the Gandhi family without naming them, the Union minister said they have never been able to contest the elections alone in Amethi.

"They used to roam around the streets of Amethi sitting on a bicycle, and on the other side, I was alone," she said.

Irani was referring to the Samajwadi Party not fielding any candidates against Gandhi in the previous elections.

She said Amethi had a Congress MP for a long time, adding that there were also SP MLAs under the grand old party's rule at the Centre, but the constituency did not gain from it.

"Whereas in the present, there has been no discrimination with Amethi or other places under the BJP rule at the Centre as well as in Uttar Pradesh, and a medical college has been built here," she argued.

"There was a time when the poor were left to fend for themselves. We did not do politics anywhere in helping people during the COVID-19 period. I also told many Congress people that if you have any problem, let us know, there should be no politics in this. We did not discriminate against anybody in providing help," she asserted.

Irani said, "A political family of a clan was glorified by people here for a long time and sent to the Parliament, but they did not think about the public."

Amethi had been a Gandhi bastion before it fell to Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi represented the constituency for three terms before he was defeated by Irani.

The constituency had been represented before him by Sonia Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

Newly-appointed Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai on Thursday said the bond between Amethi and the Congress goes generations back and its people will ensure Rahul Gandhi wins the seat back with a huge margin in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

"It is the demand of the people of Amethi that Rahul Gandhi contest the election from here and they will ensure his victory by at least 5 lakh votes," he told reporters.