BJP’s Rae Bareli candidate’s disparaging remarks about Congress’ Amethi nominee invites criticism

BJP’s Rae Bareli candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh has accused the Gandhi family of harboring ‘hatred’ against Rae Bareli-Amethi, asking why they did not field a local leader but chose ‘Priyanka Gandhi’s clerk’ to to dispute the Lok. Sabha polls from Amethi.

Singh, who is pitted against Rahul Gandhi in a high-profile election contest here, also claimed that the Gandhi scion will lose by a bigger margin than what his mother Sonia Gandhi won in the 2019 polls.

Sonia Gandhi had defeated Singh in 2019 by over 1,67,000 votes. However, this was the lowest victory margin that Sonia Gandhi has achieved in the five elections, including a bypoll, that she fought from the constituency.

“People have great confidence in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and under his leadership both the country and the hard-earned income of the people are safe. The people of Rae Bareli also trust the Prime Minister,” Singh told PTI in an interview here.

“So in such a scenario, I don’t think the Congress candidate will be able to hold his own against the BJP candidate in Rae Bareli,” he said.

Asked about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra camping in Rae Bareli and campaigning for her brother Rahul, Singh said this could be a topic of discussion for media persons coming from outside but her camping here was not an issue for the people of Rae Bareli .

”In the 2022 Assembly elections, she stayed here and asked for votes in every nook and cranny, but in all the seats where Priyanka Gandhi camped and ran around here, around 16,000 votes were in the parliamentary segments. Is it the same Priyanka Gandhi?” he said, taking a swipe at the Congress general secretary.

”It may be of interest to you, but she has no interest to the people of Rae Bareli. She can stay here, it will be very good. She made so many promises in the 2019 polls and till 2024, let alone fulfilling those promises, she was not even by the side of the people in their happy and sad times,” the BJP leader alleged.

In the local dialect he said: ”Aaj nikli hain, humka andaza hai kauno gaon bachi na jahan belana liye mahilayein khadi na hui hain, inka swagat kare ke liye’ (I feel that when she goes to the villages Women would welcoming with clubs in their hands).” Singh alleged that the Gandhi family harbors hatred against Rae Bareli-Amethi and that is why it has not fielded anyone from there in the Lok Sabha polls since 1952, nor has any native person has sent Rajya Sabha.

”Rahul Gandhi ji has opened ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’. There is so much hatred in the mind of Gandhi family towards Amethi-Rae Bareli. From 1952 till now, the Gandhi family has never given a Lok Sabha ticket to anyone born to a Rae Bareli mother,” Singh alleged.

No son of Rae Bareli was sent to Rajya Sabha and the Gandhi family did not make anyone from Rae Bareli even an MP.

”The representatives of parliament have also been brought in from outside. Today it is before the people. Can only someone from Ludhiana, Priyanka Gandhi’s clerk, fight the Amethi polls? Were there no Congress leaders in Amethi?” he said.

”This hatred they have for Amethi-Rae Bareli is reflected in ‘we are not giving the ticket to anyone from Amethi or Rae Bareli, we are getting someone from Delhi or Ludhiana’,” the BJP leader said.

They have ‘hate’ against Amethi-Rae Bareli in their minds and this time Amethi-Rae Bareli will give a befitting reply to them, Singh said.

While Rahul Gandhi is contesting the Lok Sabha election from the Rae Bareli seat, Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded from the Amethi seat.

Singh also refuted suggestions that Rae Bareli was an electoral fortress of the Congress.

”Fort is one with four to five MLAs, eight block pramukhs and ten zila panchayat members of the party. The Congress does not have a pradhan or block pramukh, or MLA, MLC or zila panchayat president.” He said Singh alleged that the Congress does not even have an MP and even though the certificate of MP is with Sonia Gandhi on principle she is not the member of parliament.

She fought on a Congress ticket but the SP, BSP and Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) faction supported her and she fought as a representative of four parties, Singh claimed.

“Had she contested as a Congress representative, if you look at my vote, you would find that I would have won one by lakhs against just Congress candidate Sonia Gandhi,” he argued.

“You can’t imagine the decline that Congress has suffered here. In 2019, when I was fighting the polls, I was fighting on the basis of the scores of the 2017 Assembly elections. In 2017, the votes of all the Congress parliamentary candidates were 3,40,000 and I got 3,60,000 votes, and now the score of Congress stands at 1,40,000 votes in the 2022 assembly elections, Congress has already lost 2 lakh votes,” he said. said.

Rahul Gandhi does not have the cross-party support that Sonia Gandhi had, so there is no doubt that the number of votes that Sonia Gandhi won by in 2019, Rahul Gandhi will lose by a larger margin, Singh said.

He said we should not believe that Congress had been undefeatable here as former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated here after the Emergency.

”Those who say that do not know the history of Rae Bareli. In Rae Bareli, Indira Gandhi suffered a crushing defeat. Those who say Congress has not lost should be told that Rae Bareli is the land of the people who did not let the British occupy the area for a year,” he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)