'Amethi residents will ask questions if Priyanka comes to campaign'

Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday targetted Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, saying she will have to face questions from Amethi residents if she came visiting for campaigning.

"If she (Priyanka Gandhi) comes to campaign here, she has to answer the people's questions," the Minister said when asked by a reporter about Priyanka Gandhi still missing from the onoging campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.

Irani, who unsuccessfully contested the Amethi seat against Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, was here to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"In the last three years, despite losing the seat, I did whatever I could do for the people of the constituency," she added.

Congress leaders have said that Priyanka Gandhi will campaign in Amethi and Rae Bareli, the two parliamentary constituencies that she has earlier campaigned in for her mother and brother.

There were demands from Congress workers that Priyanka Gandhi should campaign all over the state but she decided to restrict herself to Amethi, represented by her brother Rahul Gandhi, and Rae Bareli represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi.

Irani said when she decided to contest the Amethi seat, it helped bringing the reality of the parliamentary constituency before the country's people.

"Before 2014, the country's people harboured a misconception that the residents of the Lok Sabha constituency -- ruled by the Congress for 60 years -- did not have to struggle for their daily needs," Irani said, adding that people were "shocked that Amethi residents were struggling even for basic infrastructure".

--IANS

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