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After Rahul Gandhi was named by the AICC as its candidate from Raebareli Lok Sabha seat, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Friday said that Congress has nothing to show on the development front in the Amethi and hence decided to run away and field the Wayanad MP from a "safe seat."
"'Daro mat kehte kehte Rahul Gandhi, Amethi se lado mat'. This has become the new slogan of the Congress party. Today, with this announcement, Congress has confirmed that not a single member of the first family can contest in what they used to call the pocket boroughs of Amethi. In the last 50 years, Rahul Gandhi has not done much, as in the last five years, Smriti Irani, under the leadership of PM Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath, has delivered. First Amethi rejected them, and they went to Wayanad, now Wayanad rejected them and hence they came to Raebareli," Poonawalla told ANI. The BJP leader further said that people in Raebareli too will reject Rahul in the Lok Sabha elections. "They have nothing to show in Amethi, opted for a safe seat in Raebareli. Raebareli people won't elect someone who will discard them and go on foreign trips," he said. Poonawalla further said, "80/80 will be the scorecard for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and 400 plus for NDA across the country... KL Sharma's first priceless reaction tells everything. He feels like he is made a scapegoat. I feel bad for Robert Vadra. He tried hard but did not get a chance." Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that Rahul Gandhi is contesting Rae Bareli due to fear of the people of Amethi and Smriti Irani. "Some acquaintance of his must have advised him to contest the election from Rae Bareli, due to which he has now come to contest from Raebareli, but he will not get any benefit. The way the people of Amethi scolded him, similarly, the people of Rae Bareli will also work to drive him away. The lotus flower will bloom everywhere in Amethi, Raebareli, Kannauj, and we will win with a huge majority," he said. Rahul is pitted against the BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh. Rahul currently represents Wayanad in the Lok Sabha, while Smriti Irani is bidding for a fresh term from Amethi. Raebareli was held by Sonia Gandhi, who became a member of Rajya Sabha. The Congress party has also named Kishori Lal Sharma, a party loyalist from Amethi, the seat Rahul Gandhi lost in the 2019 general elections to BJP leader Smriti Irani. Sonia Gandhi contested elections from here in 1999 before passing the baton on to Rahul in 2004. Irani had earlier filed her nomination as the BJP candidate for Amethi. Both seats are going to polls in the fifth phase on May 20. Rahul represented Amethi in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2019. His father and former Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, too, was an elected member of Amethi in the Lower House from 1981 till his death in 1991. The party has won the Congress bastion in all but three Lok Sabha elections since 1951. Before Sonia Gandhi, former Indira Gandhi had won from Raebareli three times. The constituency also elected Indira's husband and Congress leader, Feroze Gandhi, twice, in 1952 and 1957. A member of the Nehru-Gandhi family has not contested the seat just twice, in 1962 and 1999. (ANI)
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