'Rahul Gandhi deserted Amethi due to fear of Smriti Irani': How BJP plans to puncture Congress’ UP plan

'Rahul Gandhi deserted Amethi due to fear of Smriti Irani': How BJP plans to puncture Congress’ UP plan

BJP’s campaign line for Amethi and Raebareli is set now, with Rahul Gandhi changing his seat to the latter and the Congress fielding a family confidante from Amethi against Union minister Smriti Irani.

BJP sources say the party will project amongst the people that Rahul Gandhi deserted Amethi in fear of losing to Irani, and that there is no stopping her record win from Amethi now. KL Sharma is an outsider for Amethi and has been a manager for Sonia Gandhi in Raebareli for over two decades, BJP sources have pointed out.

BJP will also tell voters that there is no point voting for Rahul Gandhi in Raebareli as he will leave this seat too and retain Wayanad if he wins both, sources explained. “The delay has shown indecision and weakness till the last moment; this is the state of the Congress party. It is clear to voters also Rahul Gandhi was reluctant to contest and will desert Raebareli too as he is no mood to leave Wayanad,” a senior BJP leader told News18.

BJP is hoping that Singh can pull off a major upset in Rae Bareli as two key MLAs of the Lok Sabha constituency, Aditi Singh and Manoj Pandey, will be asked to throw their weight behind him.

Sonia Gandhi’s margin of win on this seat was 3.5 lakh votes in 2014. It was halved to 1.67 lakh in 2019 when Pratap fought for the first time from here. So, the man who halved Sonia’s margin in 2019 has been given another shot at Raebareli by the BJP.

In fact, the story is similar to Irani’s who reduced Rahul Gandhi’s margin of 3.5 lakh in 2009 to about one lakh in 2019 before ultimately defeating him in 2019 by 55,000 votes. BJP is hoping for a repeat in Raebareli so the same strategy has been adopted, party sources said.