Amit Shah Accuses Gandhis of Neglecting Rae Bareli, Sparks Controversy

NEW DELHI: Taking on the Gandhis in their bastion Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, senior BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday accused the four-term MP and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi of “spending more than 70 per cent of her MP funds on minorities”. At another rally in the day in UP's Pratapgarh, Mr Shah said, "Rahul Gandhi can be scared of an atom bomb, but the BJP is not."

Seeking votes for BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh, who is pitted against Mr Gandhi in Rae Bareli, Mr Shah accused Mrs Gandhi of not visiting her parliamentary constituency while she represented the seat in the Lok Sabha. Mrs Gandhi recently moved to the Rajya Sabha.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was also campaigning in Rae Bareli, vehemently rejected Mr Shah’s charge. Addressing a poll rally in support of Mr Gandhi, Ms Vadra accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of never visiting any village in his Varanasi constituency.

At Rae Bareli rally, Mr Shah said, "You gave the Gandhi family a chance for years, but no development work has been done... They (the Congress) do not believe in development. They do not even come to you in your happiness and sorrows."

Asking people to vote for the BJP candidate, the Union minister said, "We will connect Rae Bareli with Modi Ji's development journey."

"The 'Shahzada' (referring to Mr Gandhi) has come here to seek votes. You have been voting for them for many years. Have you received anything from the MP fund? If you have not received it, then where did it go? It went to their votebank. Mrs Gandhi has spent more than 70 per cent of the MP funds on minorities," Mr Shah claimed.

The MP fund refers to the member of Parliament local area development scheme under which MPs can recommend development programmes involving expenditures of '5 crores each year in their constituencies.

Intensifying his attack, the senior BJP leader said, "This Gandhi family is an expert in lying. They are now promising '1 lakh for every woman. In the Telangana (Assembly) elections, they had said that they will give '15,000 to every woman. The women of the state elected them (the Congress)... Forget about '15,000, they did not even give '1,500."

“Many people here told me that this is a family seat... It is true. The people of Rae Bareli have made the Gandhi and Nehru families win for years. But after getting elected from here, how many times did Sonia Ji and her family come to Rae Bareli? Okay, Sonia ji's health is not good, but have Rahul baba or sister Priyanka visited?"

After the rally, Mr Shah visited the residence of Samajwadi Party MLA from Unchahar Manoj Pandey, who on February 27 resigned from the post of the party's chief whip and cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls.

In Pratapgarh, campaigning in support of the BJP candidate from Kaushambi (SC) Lok Sabha seat, Mr Shah said, "Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Congress and INDIA bloc leader Farooq Abdullah said Pakistan should be respected because they have the atom bomb and don't demand Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Today, I want to ask... Is PoK not a part of India? Rahul baba, if you want to be scared of the atom bomb, be scared. We are not scared. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir belongs to India and we will take it."

In a viral video, Mr Aiyar was heard saying that India should give respect to Pakistan as it is a sovereign nation and engage with it as it also possesses the atom bomb. He indicated in the video that if a "mad person" comes to power there and uses the atomic bomb, it will not be good and will have its effect here too.

While Mr Aiyar said the video was old and dredged up now as the BJP's election campaign is faltering, the Congress said it totally disagreed with the remarks made by Mr Aiyar some months ago.

"Every child of Kaushambi is willing to lay down his life for Kashmir. The Congress, the SP and the BSP were taking care of Article 370 as their 'illegitimate child'. You made Modi Ji Prime Minister for the second time and he scrapped Article 370, worked to end terrorism in Kashmir and made it an integral part of India," Mr Shah told the rally.

"But these two princes -- SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Baba -- say that if they come to power they will bring back Article 370," he claimed.

Asserting that the Opposition INDIA bloc black has no chance of winning the Lok Sabha election, the senior BJP leader said, "Assuming that they do, who will be their Prime Minister? When asked about it, the answer was a one-year term on a rotational basis. Rahul baba, this is not a grocery shop," Mr Shah said.

Referring to the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, he said that for 70 years, the Congress, the SP and the BSP kept blocking it. "Modi Ji did 'bhoomipujan' and on January 22, he performed the consecration ceremony," Mr Shah said.

The Union home minister claimed that the Opposition leaders, including Mrs Gandhi, Mr Gandhi, Mr Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav, were invited to the consecration event at the Ram temple.

"But these people did not go, because they are afraid of their votebank. But the BJP is not afraid of votebank. Not only the Ram temple, Modi Ji also built Baba Vishwanath's darbar (in Varanasi) which was destroyed by Aurangzeb. The Somnath temple is also being built. Modi Ji has worked to redecorate our places of worship," he said.

Calling on the people of Kaushambi to ensure three hattricks, Mr Shah said, "First is to make Mr Modi the Prime Minister for the third time. The second hattrick in UP is to completely wipe off the SP, the BSP and Congress for the third time and the third hattrick is to make my friend (Vinod) Sonkar the MP for the third time," he said.

Later, addressing a rally in Gonda, Mr Shah said, "This election is to make India the third largest economy in the world. This election is to give a befitting reply to Pakistan for its actions. This election is to answer the terrorist's bullet with a shell," said the senior leader.