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Congress party’s candidate from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi seat Kishori Lal Sharma, responding to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) claims that his party accepted defeat in the constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, said on Thursday that the remark reeked of “arrogance”. He further added that his victory in the polls would be a win for the Gandhi family.
Speaking on BJP’s criticism that Congress fielded him instead of a Gandhi family member which seemed as if they accepted defeat, Sharma told PTI, “It is their arrogance that is speaking that the seat has been surrendered. The answer to this will be given by the people on May 20 and the result will be out on June 4.”
For the first time in 25 years, a member of the Gandhi family will not be running for the Lok Sabha seat in Amethi, a constituency closely linked with the Gandhis. In the 2019 national elections, the Congress stronghold was taken over by the BJP leader Smriti Irani, who defeated Rahul Gandhi by over 55,000 votes. This time, Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Rae Bareli.
During an interview with PTI, Sharma further said that in the 1990s, Congress leader Satish Sharma contested the seat, making way for Sonia Gandhi to contest. Satish won the Amethi seat in 1991 and 1996. However, after he lost in 1998, Sonia Gandhi fought from the seat and won.
Kishori Lal said, “This is right that it is their constituency. Even in the past Captain Satish Sharma fought from here but when Sonia ji had to fight, he had handed over the seat to Sonia ji. If such a situation arises in the future, I will do the same.”
He added, “If elected, I will work as an MP and will keep the Gandhi family’s ‘amanat’ safe.”
Sharma also responded to BJP’s comments on Rahul Gandhi “running away” from Amethi because of being scared to lose. He said that people who were born after Independence did not know much about the Gandhi family’s history.
“Neither the Gandhis (Nehru-Gandhi family) ran away during the time of the Britishers nor have they run away now or will so so in the future. We will make others run away. Rahul Gandhi is touring the whole country and ensuring that the BJP runs away.”
Further, speaking on BJP’s Rae Bareli candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh calling him a “peon” and “Priyanka Gandhi’s clerk”, Kishori Lal said, “They are showing the values they have received from their family. My father was uneducated, but he gave me good values, so we will not respond to what they are saying.”
Talking about the Congress’ election strategy, Sharma said, “They were asking for them (to contest from here) but whenever a Gandhi family member fights another member takes up the responsibility of managing that poll. Rahul ji is fighting from Rae Bareli and Priyanka Gandhi ji is managing both these elections and AICC observers are also coming. We are fighting the elections in this manner.”
A close aide of the Gandhi family, Sharma has been an MP for both Rae Bareli and Amethi, taking care of these areas.
“We are contesting on the issue of whether they (BJP) fulfilled the promises they made five years ago. We will talk about unemployment, inflation and stray animals,” he said to PTI.
When asked about Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 defeat, Sharma added, “People did not defeat Rahul Gandhi. If they defeated him by 3 lakh votes, I would have thought they had voted to defeat him. But he got over 4 lakh votes and lost by over 55,000 votes. I never blame the people of Amethi for the loss.”
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