'Ever since I dispatched him from Amethi...': Smriti Irani takes a dig at Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had lost his bastion Amethi to Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Shimla: Union Minister Smriti Irani on Monday took a dig at Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' saying ever since she dispatched Rahul Gandhi from Amethi he has been running and going around the country. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had lost his bastion Amethi to Irani in the previous Lok Sabha polls, but won from the other seat - Wayanad in Kerala.

"But wherever he went, what was the situation there? Congress kept losing elections there," Irani, the Minister for Women and Child Development, said addressing a poll rally for the Renukaji Vidhan Sabha for the November 12 Himachal Assembly polls.

She also questioned some of those joining the Yatra.

"Wherever he went and with whom. In Tamil Nadu, he took out Yatra with such a person who said in the presence of Congress people not to keep their feet on India's soil lest they get dirty.

"I want to ask Congress' shameless leaders that our brave martyrs have given their blood for this soil.

"Congress party leaders took out Yatra, with whom they took out this Yatra in Kerala? With those who slaughtered cows and then uploaded the photo on the internet. And Congress' Yuvraj is patting their back taking out Yatra," she said in a scathing attack.

"They took out Yatra with those who put resolutions of separating Kashmir from India," she said.

हिमाचल प्रदेश विधानसभा चुनाव के निमित्त आज श्री रेणुकाजी, इंदौरा और नूरपुर विधानसभा क्षेत्र में जनसभाओं को संबोधित किया।

राज्य के सर्वांगीण विकास और भय-भ्रष्टाचार मुक्त शासन के लिए, एक बार फिर @BJP4Himachal के पक्ष में मतदान के लिए लोगों से अपील की। pic.twitter.com/bBxQsWZGQ2 — Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) November 7, 2022

Irani asked Congress workers "when your leader supports those who want to see a disintegrated India, does your blood not boil, when your leader pats the back of cow slaughterers, does your blood not boil?"

This poll is not just of Renukaji or Himachal Pradesh, but between those who on one hand sacrifice everything for their nation and on the other, those who embarrass their country and support those who want to see a disintegrated India, she said.

Irani said that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and Jairam Thakur regime in Himachal Pradesh have worked for the development of the state, and people will bring back the BJP in the state on the basis of the works it has done.

She said people will not be lured by the poll sops promised by the Congress, whom she accused of stalling development in Himachal when they ruled the state.