lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 24, 2019 10:32 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Amethi, Smriti Irani, on Saturday took to Twitter to claim that the calls for Congress president Rahul Gandhi to contest from a seat in the south were all staged because his constituency had rejected him.

Smriti Irani, who had contested from Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, from where Rahul Gandhi is the sitting MP, had lost by more than 1 lakh votes.

In her tweet which was accompanied by the hashtag #BhaagRahulBhaag, Irani wrote, “Amethi has rejected him. The requests for him to contest from other seats are being staged as people (of Amethi) have rejected him.”

The Congress president has been receiving requests from the Congress workers in the southern states to contest from a southern seat for some time now. Though he will once again contest from Amethi, the Kerala constituency of Wayanad is also being actively considered as a second seat for Rahul Gandhi to contest from. “He is positive about this and a formal announcement will be made soon,” said Kerala Congress committee chief Mullapally Ramachandran.

Responding to Smriti Irani, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala reminded her that she had lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to the Congress president.

In his tweet, Surjewala wrote, “You were defeated in Chandni Chowk and in Amethi. Someone who has been rejected by the people has repeatedly found her way to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha, and now you are looking at a hat-trick of defeat in Amethi.”

Even though the state leaders from Kerala and Karnataka have been confirming news of Rahul Gandhi contesting from a southern seat, the Congress leadership in Delhi has not said anything to effect so far.

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The Congress workers in the southern states feel that Rahul Gandhi contesting from a seat in the south is likely to give the party a fresh boost and help it strengthen the party’s position.

Surjewala had said that “lakhs of Congress workers and people of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have urged Rahul Gandhi to contest the Lok Sabha from these states” and that the party will take a decision on the issue soon. “We thank them for their effort and also their expression of love and affection. The Congress president will positively consider it.”

AICC general secretary and former chief minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, too, said a strong pitch has been made for Gandhi to contest from Wayanad.

Congress leader T Siddique, widely tipped as the party’s Wayanad contender, said in Kozhikode on Saturday that “it is great honour for me to vacate the seat for the PM-in-waiting...”

The Congress’s Amethi district committee released a statement on Saturday evening saying it supports calls by southern colleagues.