BJP worker shot dead in Amethi: Smriti urges party workers to exercise restraint, targets Rahul

After one of her close aides was killed here, BJP MP Smriti Irani Sunday asked party workers to exercise restraint, even as she said Congress president Rahul Gandhi's 'take-care-of-Amethi-with-love' message was "loud and clear" to her.

The BJP leader, who arrived here following the death of Surendra Singh (50), said he was killed so that Amethi could be "terrorised, disintegrated and made to bow down".

Irani, who unseated Gandhi from his bastion when results for the Lok Sabha elections were announced on May 23, told reporters "My request to all party workers is that we should exercise restraint."

In the first incident of post-poll violence in Uttar Pradesh, Singh, a close aide of Irani, was shot dead by two unidentified men. The police have not ruled out the possibility of it being a "political murder".

 

"On (May) 23, I was given a message that take care of Amethi with love. To the person, who gave me the message, I would like to say that I have received the message loud and clear," she said, referring to Gandhi's remarks without naming him.

On May 23, Gandhi had said, "I would like that Smriti Iraniji takes care of Amethi with love and I hope that she will reward the trust that Amethi's people have reposed in her."

Paying tributes to the slain ex-pradhan, Irani said, "The bereaved family of the BJP bows its head before the departed soul of Surendra Singh, and the family of 11 crore BJP workers is standing with his family."

"The aim of the Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath governments is that justice is done... BJP workers and residents of Amethi are assured that even if the killers are hiding beneath the ground, they will be caught and brought to justice," she said.

Irani said, if need be, she would move the Supreme Court to ensure that Singh's killers are given capital punishment.

"Today I have pledged before the family of Surendra Singh that police will take action against the person who fired the bullet and the person who gave orders for firing the bullet," she said.

"And if I need to approach the Supreme Court to ensure that the killers get capital punishment, then all the workers will knock the doors of the SC's doors with me and ensure that Surendra Singh's family gets justice," she said.