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Smriti, Congress in twitter war over relief to Amethi poor
Political experts say both parties have found the coronavirus outbreak a chance to propagate their connect with Amethi.
Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani and the Congress have got into a twitter war over providing relief to the poor in Amethi, a bastion the Congress lost to the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Incidentally, this bitterness came even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to opposition leaders seeking a united war against the coronavirus.
Political experts say both parties have found the coronavirus outbreak a chance to propagate their connect with Amethi.
Before its 2019 loss, the Congress had lost Amethi just twice in the past -- in the post emergency elections of 1977 and then again in 1998 when Captain (retd) Satish Sharma, a Gandhi family loyalist, got defeated.
Three days back Congress posted a tweet, “Hamara dilon ka naata hai, haemin rishtey nibhana aata hai (It’s an emotional connect as we know how to honour relations)” and followed it up with another tweet on Sunday mocking BJP MP Smriti Irani’s efforts, who then took to twitter to target the Congress.
Irani responded with a series of tweets that highlighted her contribution to Amethi while mocking at the Congress.
“Why would you want to ensure safety of people by making them stay indoors? If people remain alive how would Rahul ji engage in politics? If you want to know about Amethi, ask Pradeep Singhal ji, your own (Amethi) chief as a week back I had spoken to him on how we need to focus on social welfare instead of politics,” she tweeted.
Tagging the Congress’s tweet about her playing ‘antakshari’ while Rahul supplied essentials to the people, Smriti then posted a series of tweets on how the people of Amethi were being cared for.
“In Amethi 25,221 widows found money in their bank accounts courtesy @myogiadityanath. This week money was transferred in the Jan Dhan accounts of 1,48,000 women because there is the government of @narendramodi and @myogiadityanath. Yes, you may be angry as you didn’t get the cut,” she said in a series of tweets.
“About 75,413 elderly and 4,454 labourers got money in their bank accounts while 2,16,270 poor got rations but why should this be acceptable to you because you weren’t able to rob Amethi of its bite,” she posted in another tweet.
BJP leaders as well as district officials in Amethi admit that Smriti was in regular touch with them, sending food and other essentials for the people of her constituency just as Congressmen, too, made a similar admission about Rahul Gandhi taking care of the people here.
“After sending truck loads of dry ration for Amethi, Rahul ji has sent 12,000 sanitisers, 20,000 masks and 10,000 soap cakes which are being distributed to the poor through the district Congress committee,” said Amethi Congress chief Pradeep Singhal.
The twitter handles of Amethi BJP and Amethi Congress, too, have been actively propagating how the present and former MPs of Amethi are engaged in people-connect. Both parties shared “photo proofs” of how the cadres were reaching out to the people, running community kitchens and taking care of the requirements of the poor and daily wagers hit hardest by the 21-day lockdown.
