Amethi: The BJP is lining up a team of heavyweights led by prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to take on the might of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is campaigning for her brother Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, on May 5. Besides Arun Jaitley, there’s also a possibility of L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj accompanying Mr Modi to the Congress stronghold.
Meanwhile Ms Vadra, who was expected to leave for Delhi for a day, has decided to stay back and prepare for the saffron onslaught.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged on Thursday that slanderous literature against her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul was being distributed in Amethi, that goes to polls on May 7. Talking to reporters while campaigning in Gauriganj, she said that books and pamphlets with baseless material on her family was dumped in the middle of the night in villages where she would speak the next day.
“Why are they doing it like cowards? Do it openly as this is an ideological war,” she said.
Priyanka said that the level of the campaign had sunk very low. “Politics should be done with a sense of service, but it seems some leaders don’t think so.”
On an emotional note, she added, “I will not ask you for votes. You have stood by us in good and bad times, and we will always stand by you. I have been coming to Amethi since childhood, and I will come here even when I become old.”
The Congress star campaigner advised a party worker, who was booked for allegedly threatening to kill AAP candidate in Amethi Kumar Vishwas, to shun ideology of violence. “This is not our ideology. I have met killers of my father in jail. We never believe in taking revenge. This should not happen. There is a way to express your feelings. You should not have said this,” Priyanka told Vinod Mishra who had allegedly threatened to shoot Vishwas.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Arun Jaitley took a swipe at Priyanka saying that by using somewhat impolite language against Narendra Modi everyday she has succeeded in “robbing her brother from being in the limelight” and pushed him “out of the frame”.
“Ostensibly intended to attack Narendra Modi daily in somewhat impolite language, the sister has succeeded in robbing the brother from being in the limelight. Attack Mr Modi was the strategy but ‘dilute Rahul’ is the consequence. Having pushed the brother out of the frame, the sister has to realize that there is much more in politics and the country than only ‘our family’,” Mr Jaitley said in an article.
