Smriti Irani responding to Rahul Gandhi in LS: BJP is ready to battle Congress for Amethi

When Rahul Gandhi raised an issue pertaining to Amethi, his home constituency, in Parliament on Thursday, the BJP chose to counter him through Smriti Irani, the Union HRD Minister. Should something more be read into this besides the fact that the minister wanted to show a mirror to the Gandhi scion? Perhaps yes. The BJP wants to place a strong counterweight to him in a constituency that has long been a Congress fortress. They would like to bring up discomforting questions from Amethi whenever he becomes aggressive about the performance of the central government. [caption id=“attachment_2233994” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Rahul brought the family pocket borough back into the limelight by taking on the Narendra Modi government for scrapping a Rs 200-crore food park project sanctioned there during UPA-II. When Congressmen were thumping the benches when he accused the government of practising “badle ki rajeenti” (politics of revenge) instead of “badlaav ki rajneeti” (politics of change), the BJP was shoring up its defence in the form of Irani. “The food park was sanctioned in 2010, why was it delayed for four years? she asked. “If Congress has done so much development for the people of Amethi, why are people still pleading for bijli, sadak, pani?” When Irani was sent to contest from Amethi in 2014, she was seen as a lightweight and a last minute choice for the BJP. Modi followed her nomination with a huge public rally to give an impetus to her campaign. The results became an eye opener both for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Irani managed to shave off over 2.5 lakh votes from his victory margin of 2009. Such is the dominance of the Gandhi family in the seat that very few parties have managed to poll over a lakh votes against Congress. But in 2014 the BJP led by Irani polled over 3 lakh votes. Even though Amethi and Rae Bareli have been singled out for the UPA’s largesse in every Budget for the past 10 years, the Modi wave of 2014 actually came close to breaching this Gandhi bastion. A few months ago, the BJP even launched an ambitious plan to muster local support in the constituency, with a membership drive that was overseen by select trusted men. But the lack of engagement with the local populace made it tough for BJP to hold onto the gains made in last year’s election. “When Smriti Irani came to this parliamentary seat during the 2014 elections, she and BJP made big promises that we will change the face of Amethi,” said Dr Sanjay Sinh, who is a Congress RS MP from Amethi. “But the first step that BJP takes in Amethi is that of scrapping the food park, they have started on the wrong foot,” he added. Rahul was known for his monthly visits to Amethi till the last few years, but what is keeping him afloat is that he has covered every block in the constituency in detail in the past ten years. Modi realizes the importance of pegging the Gandhis down in their own backyard, which would probably explain why he scrapped a project close to them. Rahul may have inadvertently reminded the PM of his unfinished task by raking up the issue of “revenge” against Amethi. With four years under his belt, he is likely to pursue the NDA’s agenda to speed up developmental work in the area to extract his revenge on India’s longest surviving dynasty. As for Smriti Irani, there is little doubt that she is the chosen one for this task. Young, articulate and aggressive, she can be the challenger Rahul never had.