Dharmendra Pradhan takes on Rahul Gandhi, says Amethi's condition worse than Odisha

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Saturday that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi should not question 'Gujarat model' of development, as conditions in Amethi were worse than Odisha.

"All I can say after visiting Amethi is that the condition in Rahul Gandhi's constituency is worse than the condition in Odisha," said Pradhan, who was here for campaigning.

He said he had gone to Amethi for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) and found only 27 percent of households had Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections.

"The dynasty that took the responsibility of Amethi, the constituency that sends them to Parliament, they could have done at least something in it," Pradhan said while addressing a press conference.

He further said people of Gujarat would give a befitting reply to Congress in the polls.

Talking about the PMUY, Dharmendra Pradhan said Prime Minister Modi took a responsibility, through which about three crore houses have LPG connections now.

"There are 25 crore household in this country out of which 1.4 crore households are there in Gujarat. When we came in power, 13 crore households had LPG meaning about 12 crore households did not have LPG, out of which 25 lakh people had PNG (piped natural gas) connection, meaning 11 crore households did not have LPG connection.

"In 60 years, 13 crore households had gained LPG connections, but in the last three and a half years this number has increased from 13 crore to around 21 crore, meaning we provided about 8 crore new LPG connections," said Pradhan.