Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, visiting Amethi for the second time this month, today upped the ante against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in his home turf.
Addressing a public meeting in Gandhi's parliamentary constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader lambasted him for allegedly neglecting his constituency and failing to fulfill their aspirations about development.
She also highlighted the achievements of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre on completing on year in office.
Amethi has become a theatre of sparring between BJP and Congress ever since Gandhi returned from his almost two months sabbatical.
In his latest avatar, Gandhi has been zealously hitting out at the Narendra Modi government and accusing him of working against the interests of farmers. He also accused the central government of rescinding the proposed mega food park in Amethi, conceptualised during the previous Congress-led regime.
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While Irani had last visited Amethi on May 12, Gandhi toured Amethi during May 18-20, wherein he tried to convince people that the NDA government had cancelled the park due to political vendetta and that farmers were left to suffer.
Irani had fought the 2014 election from Amethi and lost to the Congress vice president by a margin of over 1,00,000 votes; a massive trickle down to the latter's victory margins of about 3,70,000 and 2,90,000 votes in 2004 and 2009 general elections respectively.
Approved in 2010, the food park project was formally inaugurated in October 2013 in the presence of Gandhi and Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. However, the project made little headway even during the previous UPA government over issues related to land, viability and clearances.
To counter Congress' vitriolic attack and blunt Gandhi's stinging allegations of neglecting farmers, BJP has fronted Irani to lead the charge at Amethi to 'expose' the opposition canards on the issues of farmers, land acquisition and food park.
