JOIN USStepping up its attack on a resurgent Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday deployed two of its ministers to corner the Congress leader on his home turf of Amethi.
The BJP accused him of not coming to the rescue of his electorate in their hours of need and instead “lobbying” for a corporate house.
Congress workers also held a demonstration in Amethi to register their protest against the cancellation of the Food Park and what they claimed were anti-farmer policies of the Centre.
They also showed black flags to Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, who arrived on a day’s visit to Amethi on Tuesday.
Smriti and Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjiv Baliyan addressed a “kisan panchayat” (meeting of the farmers) at Fatehpur Raja village in Tiloi Assembly segment of Amethi Lok Sabha seat and slammed Rahul for not helping the farmers of his constituency, whose standing crops had been damaged by the rain and hailstorms that lashed the state in March and April.
Smriti , who had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha poll from Amethi against Rahul, also sought to corner the Congress leader on the issue of the Food Park.
“During his party's government, Rahul never bothered to take steps to start the project, which was conceived in 2010...nothing was done in the next four years,” she said.
Smriti said the Nehru-Gandhi family had used Amethi to establish itself in politics but did not do enough for the constituency. She declared that 5,000 farmers from Amethi would be provided insurance facility.
“Successive generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family have only exploited Amethi.....they only made promises...we will fulfill them,” Irani said, adding that she would be visiting Amethi again in the last week of this month.
The minister said she was happy that Rahul also decided to visit Amethi after her programme was announced. “He (Rahul) is following my footsteps,” she remarked.
The Congress workers, meanwhile staged a demonstration in Amethi and asked the Centre to stop what they said was “politics of revenge”.