Ernakulam: Union Minister Smriti Irani took a subtle jab at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, attributing his loss in Amethi to what she described as his position as the “political master” of his party. For over four decades, Amethi had been a stronghold of the grand old party, but Irani claimed that a sense of arrogance led to their electoral setback.
Irani, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, further said that the alliance of opposition parties today on the national front was one she had fought in Amethi in 2019, when she defeated Rahul Gandhi.
These comments were made in response to an audience query during the Manorama News Conclave 2023, a gathering organized by the Malayala Manorama group. The question raised was why the BJP was unable to secure a seat in Kerala and whether Smriti Irani would consider challenging Rahul Gandhi to rectify this.
In her response, Irani noted the distinction between her role as a BJP political worker and Rahul Gandhi’s position as the political master of the Congress party. Irani said, “Rahul Gandhi is the political master of the Congress party, and I am a political ‘karyakarta’ (worker)
of the BJP. There is a huge political difference between being a political master and a worker.”
“I think it is that arrogance that has ensured that the Congress party, even in a Lok Sabha constituency called Amethi, in the past four-and-a-half years that I have been an MP from there, out of five assembly constituencies has lost the security deposit in four.”
She went on to emphasize that in 2019, the Congress party had secured over four lakh votes in Amethi, a constituency they had held for nearly four decades as a family stronghold. However, that figure had dwindled to 1.2 lakh in the recent electoral contest.
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