This story is from October 22, 2016

BJP goes to Amethi with populist plans

he BJP is taking its battle in UP against Congress to Rahul Gandhi's home turf ahead of the high-stake election in the state by fielding three Union ministers on Saturday for launching or inaugurating the government's key social schemes in Amethi, the Congress vice-president's Lok Sabha constituency.
BJP goes to Amethi with populist plans
he BJP is taking its battle in UP against Congress to Rahul Gandhi's home turf ahead of the high-stake election in the state by fielding three Union ministers on Saturday for launching or inaugurating the government's key social schemes in Amethi, the Congress vice-president's Lok Sabha constituency.
NEW DELHI: The BJP is taking its battle in UP against Congress to Rahul Gandhi's home turf ahead of the high-stake election in the state by fielding three Union ministers on Saturday for launching or inaugurating the government's key social schemes in Amethi, the Congress vice-president's Lok Sabha constituency .
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan will lead the BJP's political outreach by launching Ujjwala, the Modi government's signature scheme pro viding LPG connection free of cost to poor households, in Rahul's constituency .

Pradhan would also inaugurate the permanent campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology .
For Amethi, however, the party has raised the bar by adding the weight of HRD minister Prakash Javadekar and textiles minister Smriti Irani, who unsuccessfully contested against Gandhi from the constituency in a high-pitch battle in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Javadekar will launch a Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya there, accompanied by Irani.The textile minister's presence can be interpreted as BJP's indication that it has not given up on Amethi.
On his part, Gandhi has chosen to stay away from the function of the petroleum institute, perhaps knowing fully well the BJP would be using the occasion to assert its allegation that the Gandhi bastion had been “neglected“ under UPA.

In a letter in response to Pradhan's invitation, Gandhi thanked the minister but excused himself saying the date was not convenient for him.But he used the opportunity to remind the oil minister that it was the Congress-led UPA government which initiated the petroleum institute.
“On the occasion of the RGIPT permanent campus becoming operational, I extend my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to the faculty , students, officials of the petroleum ministry and oil PSUs. I would have certainly liked to have attended the inaugural function, had it been planned and scheduled on a mautually convenient date. I do look forward to visiting the new campus once the classes commence,“ Gandhi said in the letter, which he tweeted.
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