Posters supporting Robert Vadra.
Credit:X/@AdvShrutidesai
Lucknow: Amid the ongoing suspense over Congress' candidate from the party's erstwhile bastion of Amethi, posters of party national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husband Robert Vadra came up in several parts of the town on Wednesday.
The posters with slogans such as 'Ameti ki janata kare pukar, Robert Vadra abki baar' (the people of Amethi want Robert Vadra this time) were pasted on the walls of the Congress offices at Amethi and Gauriganj besides important crossings and near the railway station.
It was not clear who had put up the posters and they only mentioned 'Amethi ki janata' (the people of Amethi).
Congress leaders were quick to pass on the buck to the BJP, saying it was the handiwork of the saffron party workers as part of a 'well planned conspiracy'. "BJP knows that its candidate (union minister Smriti Irani) is going to lose this time and hence it is resorting to such tactics," said a senior UP Congress leader here on Wednesday.
He said that the grand old party would declare its candidates from Amethi and Raebareli at the appropriate time. ''Why is the BJP so eager to know who our candidate from Amethi will be?'' the leader said.
Interestingly Robert Vadra had recently indicated that he was ready to contest from Amethi if the Congress wanted him to. 'Me and my family have been serving the nation for a long time...I will feel honoured if I get a chance to contribute to the progress of the country," Vadra had said recently.
Smriti Irani, the BJP nominee from Amethi, had taken potshots at the possible candidature of Robert Vadra at her public meetings in Amethi. ''Jijaji (Robert Vadra) ki nazar Amethi par hai....ab sale sahab (Rahul Gandhi) kya karenge....woh rumal rakh denege seat par'' (Robert Vadra has set his eyes on Amethi...what will Rahul Gandhi do now...he will perhaps put a handkerchief on the seat), she had said.
The posters also came amid the renovation and cleaning works at Rahul's house at Gauriganj in Amethi which triggered speculations in the political circles here that the former Congress president could also contest from his one time bastion along with Wayanad seat in Kerala.
Rahul, while speaking to the reporters at Ghaziabad a few days back, had said that the decision about his candidature from Amethi would be decided by the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the party's central election committee..Rahul had lost the 2019 LS poll from Amethi to union minister Smriti Irani. Rahul however emerged victorious from Wayanad seat. He is in the fray again from Wayanad.