Rahul Gandhi to visit Amethi on January 22, 23

Congress President Rahul Gandhi however scheduled to reach Amethi on Friday but postponed his visit to participate in the debate on Rafale issue in the Lok Sabha.

File photo

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who postponed his visit to Amethi, will now undertake the trip on January 22-23, evoking criticism from Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani. The Congress chief was earlier scheduled to reach Amethi on Friday on a two-day visit and participate in several programmes.

However, he cancelled his visit to participate in the debate on Rafale issue in the Lok Sabha. Union Minister Irani, who reached Amethi on Friday, took a dig at Gandhi for delaying his scheduled visit to his parliamentary constituency, saying, "Rahul is not coming to Amethi even when the Parliament is not working on Saturday. It shows neither he can come on time to his own constituency nor he can give timely solutions.

"For quite some time now, the two leaders have been at loggerheads over the development of Amethi, with Union Minister Irani maintaining that the constituency has suffered despite the Gandhi family representing the seat in the Lok Sabha for decades.Gandhi, a Member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi, had defeated Irani from this Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 elections. Irani is expected to contest from Amethi seat once again in the 2019 polls for which she has started making frequent trips to drum support for herself.