 "Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi addressing people during his kisan yatra.")
Two weeks after Congress President Rahul Gandhi concluded his month-long 'Kisan Yatra' across Uttar Pradesh (UP) to consolidate rural electorate ahead of the 2017 UP polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is taking the poll battle to his home turf of Amethi.
The Amethi constituency is the pocket borough of Gandhi family and represented by Rahul Gandhi in Parliament.
Three union cabinet ministers and senior BJP leaders viz. Union HRD Minister Prakash Jawdekar, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (independent charge) Dharmendra Pradhan are arriving in Amethi tomorrow.
They would attend a programme of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for distributing LPG connections to women of BPL families under the Pradhan Mantri Ujawla Yojana (PMUY) at Jawahar Navodaya Vidhyalay, Gauri Ganj, Amethi.
Irani had unsuccessfully contested against Gandhi from Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Although, she lost the elections, Rahul's victory margin nevertheless came down to 1,00,000 votes; a massive trickle down from his victory margins of about 3,70,000 and 2,90,000 votes in 2004 and 2009 general elections respectively.
Meanwhile, Irani would also attend a programme at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in the neighbouring Rae Bareli district. Rae Bareli is the parliamentary constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress could win only two seats in Amethi and Rae Bareli out of the total 80 seats in UP. BJP had won 71, while its ally Apna Dal won two others.
During his 'Kisan Yatra', Gandhi addressed a series of 'Khat Sabhas' in rural pockets. About 26 road shows and 700 small meeting were organised and Gandhi traversed 141 of the 403 assembly constituencies in the state.
Congress collected 7.5 million memorandums from farmers during the Yatra, while Rahul vociferously attacked Prime Minster Narendra Modi and BJP government at the Centre in his speeches.
Yesterday, former UP Congress Committee (UPCC) President Rita Bahuguna Joshi had joined BJP in New Delhi. She also slammed Rahul's recent statement tarring Modi over the 'surgical strikes' in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to target terrorist outfits.
