Lok Sabha elections 2019: Smriti Irani alleges booth capturing in Amethi, Congress says she’s ‘looking for excuses’

Smriti Irani, the BJP’s Amethi candidate, also took a swipe at Congress general secretary and Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandi Vadra.

The BJP’s Amethi Lok Sabha candidate Smriti Irani alleged booth capturing in her constituency while taking a dig at her Congress opponent Rahul Gandhi as 51 seats across seven states voted in phase 5 on Monday. The Congress said she was ‘looking for excuses’.

Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani are tied in a direct contest in Amethi with the SP-BSP alliance not fielding any candidate. (ANI)

“I tweeted an alert to administration and EC (alleging booth capturing in Amethi), hope they take action. People of the country have to decide whether this kind of politics of Rahul Gandhi should be punished or not,” the union minister said.

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Dismissing Irani’s allegation, the Congress said that the BJP candidate was staring at a defeat and so ‘looking for excuses’. “It now is more than clear that she has lost. Now, she is looking for excuses. If Rahul Gandhi ji is capturing booths, and capturing votes, then what is the election commission doing that has been working in a biased manner in favour of Modi and Amit Shah,” Congress spokesperson Zeeshan Haider said.

Irani earlier tweeted a video of a woman at Gujartola booth in Gauriganj alleging that she was forced to press the button with the hand symbol (of the Congress).

Read: Key seats in heartland vote in power-packed phase 5 of Lok Sabha polls

The BJP’s Amethi candidate also took a swipe at Congress general secretary and Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandi Vadra. “She did not know my name 5 years back, now she keeps taking my name, such an accomplishment. Nowadays she takes her husband’s name less and my name more,” the BJP’s Amethi candidate said, according to news agency ANI.

Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani are in tied a direct contest with the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party alliance not fielding any candidates here. Rahul Gandhi is also contesting from Kerala’s Wayanad seat, which went to polls on April 23.

Amethi, the Gandhi family stronghold witnessed one of the most high-profile contests in 2014 when Gandhi defeated Irani by more than one lakh votes. The Congress president has retained the seat ever since his mother Sonia Gandhi vacated it for him in 1999.