With Rahul Gandhi taking on the Modi Government over the farmers’ issue, the BJP seems to be taking the battle right into the Congress vice-president’s bastion — Amethi. Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani will visit Amethi on May 12 to meet farmers affected by untimely rains even as Varun Gandhi, the BJP MP from Sultanpur, an adjacent constituency, took a jibe at Rahul asking if he would donate his salary to the farmers.
Varun, the other day, announced that he would donate his five-year salary to farmers and poor people and distributed cheques worth Rsone lakh each to the kin of five farmers who lost their lives. An irked Congress said it will oppose Irani’s visit over the cancellation of the mega food park project in Amethi, an issue on which Irani has confronted the Congress VP and hit out at him.
Rahul was in the eye of storm this week as the Modi Government retaliated with full force and charged him with telling lies on cancellation of food park with one of the BJP member even moving a privilege motion against him for “misleading the house”. To take the Congress president head-on, the BJP on Saturday announced that Irani (who gave a tough contest to Rahul in Amethi lok Sabha poll last year), will address ‘Kisan Panchayats’ in all blocks in the pocket-borough of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
BJP’s Amethi unit president Durgesh Tripathi said, “She will listen to the woes of the farmers who have suffered massive losses due to untimely rain and hailstorms.” Congress district president Yogendra Yadav and Rahul’s representative Chandrakant Dubey, however, said that the party will oppose Irani’s visit over cancellation of the mega food park. For his part, Varun had taken a veiled jibe at Rahul asking MPs of all neighbouring districts, including that from Amethi, to come forward and help farmers hit by the untimely rains and hailstorm in Uttar Pradesh.
“MPs representing Pratapgarh, Jaunpur, Ambedkarnagar and Amethi should also come forward in helping the farmers in distress,” Varun said. later, Varun clarified that he had not taken anyone’s name. Irani’s visit to Amethi is sure to queer the pitch of food park controversy between the BJP and the Congress. Soon after Rahul sought to charge Modi Government with not allowing the food park in his constituency and alleging that the Prime Minister was indulging in “badle ki rajniti”, Irani had tore into Congress MP’s accusations that his project was sabotaged by the BJP-Government at the centre.
“The food park was announced in 2010, when the Congress Government was there (at the Centre). Eight extensions were sought for the project as it was not considered viable. But did the MP take even eight steps to make the project a reality,” Irani said without naming Rahul at party headquarters here soon after the Congress MP leveled charges in lok Sabha on May 7. She had further charged that the foundation stone laying programme for the project was organised in 2013 to “mislead” the people. Continuing her tirade against the Congress leader, she said, “An MP has hit out at the Narendra Modi Government... As a person who stayed out of the country for 56 days, he is not aware how the change is also touching Amethi.”