Robert Vadra with Priyanka Gandhi (AP photo file)
Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Gandhi, said the people of Amethi are not happy with sitting MP Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, as she is busy bashing the Gandhi family
Congress is yet to announce name of its candidate in party’s stronghold Amethi seat in Uttar Pradesh but Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra said the people of Amethi expect him to fight the Lok Sabha elections against BJP’s Smriti Irani.
Vadra, the husband of Priyanka Gandhi, said the people of Amethi are not happy with sitting MP Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, as she is busying bashing the Gandhi family.
“The people of Amethi expect me to represent their constituency if I decide to become a member of Parliament…For years, the Gandhi family worked hard in Rae Bareli, Amethi and Sultanpur…The people of Amethi are really troubled by the current Member of Parliament, they think they have made a mistake by electing her…,” he told ANI.
Amethi and Rae Bareli seats were once bastions of the Nehru-Gandhi family but Congress is yet to announce its candidates for these constituencies. Polling in
Amethi and Rae Bareli will be held in the fifth phase on May 20.
Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, who represented Amethi in Parliament since 2002, lost the seat to BJP’s Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by a margin of about 55000 votes but elected from Kerala’s Wayanad. The party has again fielded him from Wayanad amid growing demand that he contest from Amethi too. There are speculations as well about Priyanka Gandhi contesting from Rae Bareli but the party’s high command has not taken the final call.
Meanwhile, Irani said the delay by Congress to declare their candidate from Amethi is the sign of their defeat.
“I don’t know who the Congress candidate would be (from Amethi), but this is a strange spectacle in the politics of Congress that for the first time, Congress is taking so long to declare their candidate from Amethi. This is the sign of Congress’ defeat…,” she said.
Recently, Irani, who is the Union women and child development and minority welfare minister, has become a voter of booth number 347 in Medan Mawai village of Gauriganj assembly seat which falls under the Amethi parliamentary constituency, as per the MP’s representative Vijay Gupta.
Irani entered her newly-constructed house in Maidan Mawai village on February 22, 2024.
