Union minister and BJP candidate from Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Smriti Irani on Wednesday took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi, calling him an “absentee MP” and said the people will reply with their vote if they are taken for granted.
“If you take voters for granted, the people will reply. People suffered for 15 years because of an absentee MP; they wanted someone for them. I am happy that I have been there for them,” she told CNN-News18 in an interview.
Irani, who breached the traditional Congress stronghold of Amethi in the 2019 general elections by handing a massive defeat to Rahul, further attacked the Gandhi scion by referring to his half-Italian descent. “People sometimes get fascinated by white skin, a charisma is built around it. Jinko lagta tha meri aukaat nahin hai, woh compare kar sakte hain unse jinki paidaish Gandhi pariwar mein hui (those who thought I don’t have the status, they can now compare me with those who were born in the Gandhi family),” she added.
All eyes were on Rahul, a three-time MP from Amethi, that he will once again contest from the seat but those clamouring for an Irani vs Gandhi rematch were left sorely disappointed. The Congress decided that he will take up his mother, Sonia Gandhi’s legacy and contest from her constituency of Raebareli — another party bastion in the majorly saffronised Uttar Pradesh.
But, there has been much speculation that even though the Gandhis are absent from Amethi this time, Rahul’s sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is handling much of the party’s campaign in this constituency from behind the curtains. The minister, however, dismissed her and said: “I don’t want to indulge in juvenile politics. My opponent is Priyanka Vadra, she is fighting from the backstage. At least the brother was in front; in 2014, too, Rahul only won with 1.07 lakh votes and that, too, with the help of Mulayam Singh Yadav,” she said.
Irani said she does not have a political pedigree like the Gandhi siblings, talking about her struggle to enter politics from the world of glamour, where she became a household name for her role in Ektaa Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
“I have never been pedigreed; I come from a humble background and we never had much money. Irrespective of my parents’ political differences, they kept the family together. I have seen poverty and I am not ashamed of it,” she said.
She accused the Congress of booth capturing and political violence in Amethi in the past, saying the Gandhi family ensured that there was no reportage of these events. She even said fellow BJP MP Maneka Gandhi was assaulted by “Congress goons”.
“It must have not been easy to fight elections in Amethi against Rajiv Gandhi, and then she was assaulted by Congress goons,” she added.
Irani further expanded on “terror in Amethi” saying even a journalist from News18 had witnessed that the Congress wanted to “shoot at my car”. “Gandhi family’s terror was not only for the voters, but also for the journalists. In 2014, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s assistant was at a voting booth even when it is prohibited for outsiders to be present in the vicinity,” she said, citing a report published by The New York Times on how 97 booths were allegedly captured when Rajiv Gandhi was contesting the elections from this seat in 1989.
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