Smriti Irani: Either Akhilesh is incompetent or he is protecting rape-accused minister Gayatri Prajapati
"Gayatri Prajapati was the first person Akhilesh sought votes for. Akhilesh went to Sultanpur to seek votes for Gayatri as he is an important person. He is accused of corruption in mining", Irani said.
A day before the sixth phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani has slammed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, saying that he is either incompetent or is protecting Gayatri Prajapati, the absconding minister booked for rape in the Uttar Pradesh CM's cabinet.
BJP has been demanding that Prajapati be arrested as soon as possible. Airports and exit points across the country have been put on alert amid reports of UP Minister Gayatri Prajapati planning to escape, according to officials.
In an interview to India Today, Irani said that Gayatri was the first person Akhilesh went and sought votes for. He went to Sultanpur to seek votes for Gayatri as he is an important person. "Why is that? Because he is accused of corruption in mining", the BJP leader added.
Irani made these remarks in Vanarasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, which goes to polls in the sixth phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
- When asked why the Opposition was calling PM Modi's roadshow and back-to-back rallies in Varanasi a sign of nervousness, the BJP leader said the fact that opposition parties were tracking every move of our party showed that they were jittery.
- I said this on the first day the alliance was announced that if Rahul and Akhilesh had been confident of winning on their own, they wouldn't have needed to come together. This shows that these two people are incompetent to lead their party on their own strength and are depending on each other. Hence, they have not spoken on issues regarding development.
- Since Rahul and Akhilesh cannot comment on the law and order situation in the state, they have pegged their campaign around Modi. They are running away from facts and shying away from debate. What is surprising is that Rahul had once called the Akhilesh government incompetent but today they are fighting the election together.
- Rahul Gandhi himself described his party's campaign slogan as 27 saal UP behaal, and had said that Samajwadi Party was a party of goons. Today the same Rahul Gandhi wants to blame Modi for the goonda raj spread by SP.
- Every kid in Amethi is saying, "Bhaiya ki gaadi nahi chali isliye cycle pe baith gaye hain. (Rahul magic could not work in Amethi so he now needs the SP's cycle to take him through.)