Smriti Irani mocks Rahul with #BhagRahulBhag as Congress workers demand he contest from Kerala

Amid talks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi may also contest from Wayanad constituency in Kerala in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Union Minister Smriti Irani took a dig at him saying that the people of Amethi has rejected him, adding that he is creating a farce about demands being raised for him to contest from a southern seat.

Taking to Twitter, she also alleged that Rahul has been chased away by the people of his bastion, Amethi. Irani tweeted with a hashtag 'Bhag Rahul Bhag'.

The Congress scion has been contesting from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat since 2004 and triumphed in the seat in all the consecutive elections since then.

The BJP has fielded Irani from Amethi in the upcoming general election. In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, she had challenged Rahul but was defeated by a margin of over one lakh votes.

"Amethi ne bhagaya, jagah-jagah se bulawe ka swang rachaya, kyonki janata ne thukraya. (Amethi forced you to run away, you created farce of demands from different places, because people have rejected you),"

अमेठी ने भगाया,

जगह-जगह से बुलावे का स्वांग रचाया,

क्योंकि जनता ने ठुकराया। #BhaagRahulBhaag
सिंहासन खाली करो राहुल जी कि जनता आती है pic.twitter.com/oVEox3YyHh — Chowkidar Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 23, 2019

According to news agency IANS, she used lines from Ramdhari Singh Dinkar`s poem to taunt him with the words, "Sinhasan khali karo Rahulji ki janata aati hai (vacate the throne for people, they are coming)" which was also used by Jayaprakash Narayan to attract and encourage lakhs of people at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi during the Emergency.

On Saturday, the proposal was offered to the Congress chief by the top Congress leaders in Kerala, including AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy and Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. Rahul is said to be considering the proposal and will take a call. 

Amethi district Congress and its various units had passed resolutions that he should accept the offer like his mother Sonia Gandhi and grandmother Indira Gandhi had done.

The Congress state units in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had also demanded that the party president contest the Lok Sabha elections from the respective states.

Asked about the demands, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that Rahul Gandhi will positively consider it.

The Congress earlier this month had announced that Rahul Gandhi will contest from his family bastion of Amethi.

The Congress party`s vote share was reduced to 46 per cent in 2014 as against the earlier figures of 71 per cent and 66 per cent in the 2009 and 2004 elections, respectively. The BJP, whose vote share in Amethi remained in the single digits in 2004, garnered 37 per cent of the votes cast in 2014.

Amethi has long been a stronghold of the Congress, which has not been defeated here in three decades -- barring in 1998, when the BJP`s Sanjay Singh defeated Satish Sharma of the Congress by a margin of 23,270 votes. Amethi was regained by the Congress in 1999 when Sonia Gandhi was elected MP from there.

with IANS inputs