People in Amethi consider Rahul Gandhi as family:  UP Congress chief Ajay Rai

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], August 19 (ANI): A day after he said that Rahul Gandhi will contest from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai on Saturday said that the people of Amethi consider him as their family because he fulfilled the promises.

“The people of Amethi consider him (Rahul Gandhi) as their family because he fulfilled the promises. Rahul Gandhi has connected with local people by doing the Bharat jodo yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and people now believe that it is the Gandhi family who understands our problems and concerns. The people want Congress to come into power.”

Rahul Gandhi lost to Smriti Irani in Amethi, once considered a bastion of the Congress party, by a margin of around 55,000 votes in the 2019 elections.

“In 2019, Smriti Irani had said that if you press the BJP button in the election, you will get 13 rupees per kilo of sugar. People of Amethi are still looking for that sugar. Who has eaten it?,” Rai said.

The Congress leader also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP on the rival party’s “good days are ahead” slogan

“People are now fed up with the BJP. In Varanasi itself, PM Modi said that Good days are ahead.  Fifty rupees’ per kilo of tomato is selling at two hundred fifty rupees per kilo. Are these the good days?, ” Rai said

Further Rai said that “If Priyanka Gandhi wants to contest from Varanasi seat I will retreat. I am saying it in front of the camera, I will not fight elections I will stand for Priyanka Gandhi and make sure she wins. I will give my hundred per cent, whole Congress will make sure she wins.”

Rai was the Congress candidate in Varanasi both in 2014 and 2019 and lost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier Assam Congress MLA Abdur Rashid Mandal said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is the “best Prime Ministerial candidate” for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc.

“INDIA bloc will choose the Prime Ministerial candidate. Congress party alone can’t select and it depends upon the opinion of all parties of INDIA bloc. Being a Congress MLA, worker I do believe that Rahul Gandhi will be the most acceptable Prime Ministerial candidate of the INDIA bloc,” Abdur Rashid Mandal said. Rashid further said that he wants that Rahul Gandhi to be the next Prime Minister.

The Opposition parties met to chalk out a strategy to put out a united front to take on the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

Notably, INDIA or ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ is a group of 26 opposition parties, including the Congress. The parties have come together to take on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which is led by PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prevent it from winning a third straight term at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The first such meeting was convened in Bihar’s Patna on June 23 and the second meeting was held in Karnataka’s Bengaluru on July 17-18.