'Naamdar' wants you to remain backward, Irani tells Amethi voters

Union minister Smriti Irani Thursday said people of the parliamentary constituency here were deprived of basic facilities even after many years of independence.

She is contesting the Lok Sabha polls against Congress chief Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.

Addressing an election meeting in Tiloi assembly segment, the Minister of Textiles said, "In the five years, I have gone to various villages of Amethi and seen that people are still deprived of basic facilities even after so many years of independence.

"Villages do not have roads and farmers are worried as there is no irrigation facility," she said.

Taking a jibe at her political opponent Rahul Gandhi, Irani said "naamdar" (famous) do not want development to reach Amethi.

"The 'naamdar' people want that you should remain backward, no development should take place, poverty should remain, the youth should remain unemployed and farmers should continue to languish, so that people of Amethi stand with folded hands before him and do not raise their voices," she said in an apparent reference to the Congress president.

"The naamdar people will not even visit Amethi if they do not have to file the nomination papers," the minister said.

Irani had lost to Gandhi in the 2014 general elections.

"In 2014, Amethi had defeated me, but Modiji never did any discrimination with Amethi," she added.