AMETHI: Union Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday claimed that the crowd for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's padyatra here was brought from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh as local people do not back the party.
Irani is the current Amethi MP and had defeated Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, wresting a seat which was considered a stronghold of the Gandhi family.
"Those who ruled Amethi for five decades do not have a single person with them. The crowd for the meeting was called from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh," she said in an apparent dig at the Congress leader, who had recently held a padyatra in the constituency.
Referring to the Congress slogan "ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon" for the upcoming UP Assembly polls, she alleged the party did not construct "a single toilet" for women despite ruling for a majority of period after the Independence.
Irani was addressing a public meeting, where Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid foundation stones of projects worth Rs 753 crore.
UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also spoke during the public meeting, held ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.