Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and former Congress leaders have targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his nomination for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. While some said Gandhi should contest from Pakistan, some others mocked, saying he should fight elections from Italy.
From Italy
On Sunday, Rajasthan BJP MLA Swami Balmukundacharya said Rahul Gandhi should contest elections from from his “maternal home” in Italy. “He must visit his maternal home and contest the elections there. There is no other option left. The situation of Congress and Rahul Gandhi is bad…,” he told news agency ANI.
Rahul’s mother and Congress heavyweight Sonia Gandhi was born in a small village near Vicenza, Italy.
From Pakistan
Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that Gandhi will win in Pakistan if elections are held there but in India, victory will be of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Rahul Gandhi is very popular in Pakistan and if elections are held there and he contests those, he will win by a huge margin, there is no doubt about it,” Sarma said on the sidelines of a rally in Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency.
“We lift our hands in surrender that we cannot match Rahul Gandhi in Pakistan and he will definitely win there,” the CM said, sarcastically.
Sarma’s statement came after a former minister in Imran Khan’s cabinet in Pakistan, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, shared a video featuring Gandhi on his social media handle and praised him. “Rahul on fire…,” he had captioned the video.
Former Congress leader Pramod Krishnam also said that he thinks “Rahul Gandhi should contest from Rawalpindi instead of Raebareli, as his popularity and demand are increasing in Pakistan.”
From Varanasi
Krishnam also suggested that Rahul Gandhi could have contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi if he did not want to contest from Amethi.
“We know how Rahul Gandhi migrated from Amethi. Any other leader in his place, who takes decisions after carefully weighing his credibility and acceptability, would have considered contesting directly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi if he did not wish from Amethi,” Acharya Krishnam told news agency ANI in an interview.
Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli and Wayanad
The Congress fielded Rahul Gandhi from Raebareli and party loyalist KL Sharma from Amethi, keeping Priyanka Gandhi out of the electoral contest. Rahul Gandhi had lost the Amethi seat to Union minister Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In Raebareli, Rahul Gandhi is pitted against the BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh. This is the first time Gandhi is contesting polls from Raebareli – where, his mother Sonia Gandhi as been an MP from.
Rahul currently represents Wayanad in the Lok Sabha while Smriti Irani is bidding for a fresh term from Amethi.
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Published: 05 May 2024, 05:44 PM IST