Amethi: Rahul, Priyanka visit village hit by fire tragedy

Amethi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka made a visit to his constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday. The brother-sister duo visited a village where 65 houses were gutted in a major fire.

The visit is significant as Rahul has been accused of ignoring his constituency. Rahul won from Amethi in the general elections but his victory margin came down. He fought off tough competition from Kumar Vishwas of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Smriti Irani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Add to this the worst electoral defeat suffered by the Congress in the general elections. The Grand Old Party of India managed to win only 44 seats in the elections.

In Amethi, Rahul encouraged his party workers to gear up for a long struggle. "It's time for struggle. We are ready for it," he said. At a brief meeting with party workers at Congress office at Gauriganj, Rahul said, "Despite the fact that these are not good days for Congress in UP, the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli showed confidence in the party by supporting it and for this I thank them."

"Now is the time for struggle... We will struggle", he added.

At the meeting, when some party workers pointed out on the need to review the fall in Rahul's victory margin, Priyanka who had spearheaded the campaign for her brother, said that she would again come for this purpose after a week. Rahul said the party will fight back if any step is taken against public interest, according to local Congress leaders present at the meeting. He also appealed to the workers "to get ready for struggle".

Priyanka said that "people of Amethi have saved our honour. We are thankful for it".

Rahul also said that very soon "the party will organise the review meeting".

Rahul had won 2009 Lok Sabha polls with margin of over 3.70 votes which came down to 1.07 lakh in this Lok Sabha polls. Rahul had defeated his nearest rival Irani. Earlier, Rahul and Priyanka garlanded a photo of their father Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary at party office.

With additional information from PTI