Amethi won’t forgive Modi for insulting my father: Priyanka

Narendra Modi and Priyanka Gandhi came out all guns blazing against each other on Monday with the BJP's PM candidate accusing her of displaying 'arrogance' with her Smriti Irani 'who' comment and Priyanka lashing out at him for 'insulting' Rajiv Gandhi.

Taking strong exception to Narendra Modi’s remarks against her family at his rally in the Nehru-Gandhi bastion of Amethi on Monday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the people of Amethi would give Modi and the BJP a befitting reply for insulting her martyr-father late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Modi said at his rally that Rajiv Gandhi had practised the politics of anger – a charge made against Modi by Rahul Gandhi during these elections – by humiliating the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh to the extent of bringing tears to his eyes when the CM had gone to the Hyderabad airport to receive Rajiv, who was then a Congress general secretary.

Priyanka’s counter-attack on Modi came within hours of Modi’s rally in Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of her brother and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

“They have insulted my martyr-father. The people of Amethi will not forgive them for this,” Priyanka said in a statement released to mediapersons here.

“My booth workers will give a befitting reply to the low level of their politics. This reply will come from each and every booth of Amethi,” she said.

Earlier in the day, it was business as usual for Priyanka on the last day of campaigning in Amethi.

Priyanka, who flew back to Delhi minutes before Modi’s rally began, visited some villages which had not been covered during the Congress campaign, interacted with residents and accepted their greetings before winding up the campaign.

All the while, Priyanka, who had camped here to campaign for Rahul, appeared unconcerned about Modi’s rally. She left the Munshiganj guesthouse around noon to go to the villages she had not visited earlier. On the way, she stopped briefly at many places to meet people waiting on the roadside in large numbers.

As Priyanka’s fleet moved from village to village, her son Rehan was seen watching her from the rear seat of her car.

Priyanka began her day at the Munshiganj guesthouse by meeting booth-level workers, giving last-minute touches to the party’s strategy and even supervising the distribution of booth kits to those in charge of nearly 1,200 polling booths of Amethi. She also chatted with journalists in two separate groups.