 "Smriti Irani")
Union Cabinet minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani on Monday said the Congress was still upset with her for defeating its then-president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Pune units of the Congress and its ally NCP staged protests over the issue of price rise at venues where Irani attended events during her visit to the city. The two parties are constituents of the Shiv Sena-led MVA government in Maharashtra. Speaking to reporters before a book launch event, Irani said in the 2014 general elections she had shown audacity to contest from Amethi, which was then considered a Congress fortress (she lost to Rahul Gandhi that year).
"However, in 2019, the BJP fought such an election that then-Congress president (Gandhi) had to run and find another seat (in Kerala). So the Congress's disappointment towards me is obvious," said the Union minister, referring to Congress protests in the city during her visit. The Amethi MP said the NCP was born out of the Congress so she can understand the Sharad Pawar-led party's aggressive stance against her. "It has been the BJP's pride that with the help of party organization and under the leadership of Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi), a sitting Congress president (Gandhi) was defeated (in 2019) for the first time in Indian politics. We are facing the repercussions of that victory and we will continue to bear it," she said. The Union minister said the Congress has still not come to terms with the defeat of its top leader at the hands of ordinary BJP workers.
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