5 Minutes Read
Exclusive | Rahul, Priyanka do not have self-confidence to fight from ancestral seats: Amit Shah
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)
Summary
PTI quoted sources saying Rahul is likely to contest from Rae Bareli. Priyanka is also keen on contesting from the Rae Bareli seat, but Rahul Gandhi is not favourable to the idea.
Union Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief strategist Amit Shah attacked Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for having the self-confidence to fight Lok Sabha elections from ancestral seats — Amethi and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress is still undecided on candidates for the party’s traditional seats even as the window for filing nominations ends on May 3.
“These people have lost their self-confidence. They don’t have the self-confidence to fight even from their ancestral seat. If they didn’t want to fight, why have they kept the decision on the seat pending for so long? If they had given it to a worker, at least he could have done some public outreach. This confusion somewhere reflects the lack of self-confidence,” Shah said in an exclusive interview with Network18 Group Editor Rahul Joshi.
PTI quoted sources saying Rahul is likely to contest from Rae Bareli. Priyanka is also keen on contesting from the Rae Bareli seat, but Rahul Gandhi is not favourable to the idea.
The Amethi seat has been represented by Rahul since 2004 and he remained a member of Parliament from the constituency till 2019. BJP’s Smriti Irani defeated Rahul in the 2019 General Elections. The Rae Bareli constituency was represented by Sonia Gandhi from 2004 to 2024. Before that, Sonia Gandhi had represented the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency after she entered politics in 1999. She is now a Rajya Sabha MP.
The Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies go to polls on May 20 in the fifth round of the seven-phase general elections.
Also, Shah claimed that the NDA can win all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest number of Lok Sabha seats. “In Uttar Pradesh, we will increase our seats by five to seven. If everything goes well, we can win 80 out of 80,” Shah said. In 2019, the NDA won 64 seats in Uttar Pradesh down from 73 in the 2014 elections.
If Shah stands true, then Samajwadi Party stalwarts will also face the brunt. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Kannauj, and his wife Dimple is contesting from Mainpuri. Apart from this, his family members are in the fray from Firozabad and Azamgarh.
“They are forced to field family members. It is their compulsion. That’s their main character. They don’t have anything else. To fight for family members and to make family members fight in elections — that’s the game,” he had said.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha election is underway and the voting is over in the first two phases. The polling for the third phase is on May 7. Uttar Pradesh is voting in all the phases.
Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout
3 Mins Read
Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter
Daily Newsletter
