Smriti Irani faced death threats in Amethi during 2014 polls: Book

When Smriti Irani entered the electoral fray against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi for the first time in 2014, a new book has claimed, her family feared that she could be harmed, prompting her husband to ask doctors on what should be done if she was shot at.

The claim was made in the book 'Dynasty to Democracy: The Untold Story of Smriti Irani's Triumph', which tells the story of how the Women and Child Development Minister turned the tables against the former Congress president in his family's bastion in 2019, after losing the battle five years ago.

During the 2014 campaign, the book by senior journalist Anant Vijay said, when Irani stopped her car at one locality while on way to a rally, a man approached her and said, “you have come to contest the election from Amethi, but you do not even know what is going to happen to you. A bullet could come anytime from any direction and pierce your head.”

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The man vanished from the scene immediately even before Smriti could manage to make sense of what was said. She did not tell this to local party leaders or media thinking that it would be seen as a publicity stunt, the book says adding she telephoned her husband Zubin Irani after the incident.

Zubin then went the “extra mile” and immediately contacted doctors in Mumbai to know what should be done if one was shot at and which hospital was best at handling such injuries. Doctors told him to rush the victim to Medanta hospital in Gurugram in such an eventuality.

According to the book, Zubin's car and his driver stayed in Amethi against Smriti's wishes. He had planned it to the minutest detail, including how Smriti could be rushed to Lucknow and an entire evacuation plan was prepared to take her to Delhi and then to the hospital.

The book also gives extensive details about how the RSS, which “stood firmly” behind Smriti and started preparing the ground as early as December 2018, turned the tables against the Congress machinery in Amethi. It alleges that Congress used to distribute money to voters ahead of the elections in Amethi.

Providing details on one such alleged instance in 2019, the book claimed members of RSS-allied outfits held a meeting with the district magistrate and all sub-divisional officers posted, during which it was told that police and state officials under no circumstances should allow distribution of money.

A prominent RSS office-bearer, playing a key role in the campaign, had sent an “indirect message” that officers would face "consequences" if they allow money distribution, it added.

After Smriti's loss in 2014, the book said, the RSS had increased its footprint in Amethi – from 250 RSS shakhas in 2014 to over 300 by early 2019 – and created a “winning atmosphere” by cashing in on the resentment against the Congress.

From February 2019, the RSS had been holding small booth-level meetings, including in Muslim-dominated areas. The RSS instructed all its allied outfits to come on one single platform and work towards a common goal.

The book also claimed that Congress' strategic "errors" some way or the other had contributed to Rahul's defeat. “The party could not do anything new. Its programmes were all stale. The leaders working in Amethi could not get new people associated with the Congress, and the older lot had lost connect with the public. The party could not sense this...”

It went on to add that there was no election management and leaders simply assumed that people would vote for Rahul because of their old association with the Gandhi family. The representatives of Rahul and Priyanka made separate plans and there was no coordination, it added.

The book also provides an interesting backstory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi landing in Amethi to campaign for Smriti in the 2014 polls, though initially there was no such plan. The man behind the plan was late BJP leader Manohar Parrikar, who found out a change in political atmosphere in Amethi then itself.

Finding out that Smriti was almost on her own in that election, the book said, Parrikar suggested Modi that he hold a rally there, following which the then Uttar Pradesh in-charge Amit Shah was tasked with organising one. Modi held the rally on May 5, 2014, which was the last day of campaigning for the polls then.