New Delhi:
Union Minister Smriti Irani, who removed Rahul Gandhi from Amethi family turf from office in 2019, mocked the party's delay in naming its candidate from the constituency. The minister, who today filed her nomination to defend the VIP constituency of Uttar Pradesh, also stated that no matter who the Congress will field, the candidate will lose.
“I think Congress clearly has a role for itself in Amethi. The leadership is aware that this is a losing seat for them because if they were so confident about their victory, they would have announced their candidate by now,” she said. NDTV in an exclusive interview.
There is huge speculation about the Congress candidates for Amethi and Raebareli – recently vacated by Sonia Gandhi who moved to Rajya Sabha – especially after the elections in Kerala took place on April 26. Mr Gandhi's constituency, Wayanad, is in the regional state and there was a buzz that the Congress would announce its candidate once the Kerala elections were over.
There is an expectation among the Congress rank and file that Gandhi would make an attempt to win back Amethi, while his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, would step into her mother's shoes in Raebareli. However, there are those who expect that the party could flip the constituencies.
Asked who she would prefer as an opponent between Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Ms Irani said: “I don't care. Whoever comes will surely be defeated as both entities have been absentee politicians from the area. One has been a member of parliament, I have been missing for fifteen years, I have worked for five years, two of which were corona,” she said.
Talking about the tough time the constituency has gone through during the pandemic, she said, “When you talk about corona, people wonder why they (the Gandhis) weren't there to help anyone in Amethi and Raebareli anyway.”
People, she added, “realize that if the Prime Minister had not ensured that every citizen got free ration, many people would have faced a lot of problems.”
“They also understand that had it not been for Prime Minister Modi, no one would have ensured that three vaccines would have been made available to anyone,” she added.