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Smriti Irani launches Sansad Khel Mahakumbh in Amethi
During her previous visit to her constituency in September, Smriti had helped organise the national wrestling championship in Amethi for the first time
LUCKNOW Union minister Smriti Irani launched the Sansad Khel Mahakumbh – a sporting connect with youths recently kick-started in the state by union home minister Amit Shah from Basti – in her Amethi Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday.
The Khel Mahakumbh would continue till November 30 and the BJP leadership has tasked its MPs to organise sporting activities in their constituencies.
The UP government has announced intent to invest ₹180 crore in building infrastructure and support for Indian wrestlers till the 2032 Olympics. During her previous visit to her constituency in September, Smriti had helped organise the national wrestling championship in Amethi for the first time.
On Thursday, she launched the Sansad Khel Mahakumbh, as part of which various sporting activities, including wrestling would be organised in all the 98 nyay panchayats of Amethi till November 24.
“Sporting activities would later be held at the block level and subsequently culminate at the district level,” an official said, adding that locally popular sports like ‘kho-kho’ would be part of the sporting events.
Smriti also launched ‘har ghar dastak’ – a Covid-19 inoculation campaign aimed at increasing vaccination coverage in Amethi, where the UP government sanctioned a Covid testing laboratory in April. In the run-up to 2022 UP polls, the BJP has been repeatedly pointing towards how the BJP government had ensured maximum vaccination and conducted maximum Covid tests among all the states.
Smriti also inaugurated an OPD and emergency block of community health centre (CHC).
“OPD and emergency blocks would help people get better medical facilities,” said Smriti.
Asked about Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s decision to allot 40% seats to women and go into the 2022 UP polls with the slogan ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon (I am a girl, can put up a fight), Smriti responded with a sharp retort.
“Probably, it means that she is saying that there is a ladka (man) at home who cannot fight... the Congress previously divided people on caste and religion and is now trying to divide people on the basis of their sex,” she said in Amethi.
Since winning the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Congress citadel, in the Modi wave, Smriti has kept the connect with Amethi alive, getting top leaders to sanction big ticket projects. She has herself bought a piece of land, a few kilometers from Gauriganj in Amethi, where her son performed bhoomi pujan in July for a local residence that Smriti promised in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Once ready, Smriti would become only the third MP from Amethi to have a house in Amethi.
However, Congress leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui pointed out that while Smriti was yet to come up with a local residence, the Congress leadership had long back built a house in Bhuemau village in Rae Bareli, the adjacent Lok Sabha constituency represented by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Amethi and Rae Bareli together have 10 assembly segments and having breached Amethi in 2019 LS polls, party leaders admitted that BJP had set sights on the assembly seats.
Reacting to Smriti’s visit, Congress spokesperson Zishan Haider said, “Unlike the Congress leadership which has, irrespective of victory or defeat, treated Amethi, Rae Bareli as their home, the BJP has been engaging in plain politics. About Smritiji, all I can say is that she is a good actor, but now is becoming a bit too predictable.”
