Union Home Minister Amit Shah took part in a roadshow taken out to garner support for Smriti Irani, the BJP's Lok Sabha poll candidate from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday, the last day of campaigning for the fifth phase of polling in the ongoing election.
Shah and Irani, a Union minister, greeted people from an open-top vehicle decorated with saffron flags, banners and flowers, with the slogan of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre written on it.
As the roadshow started from the Ramlila Maidan and proceeded till the Devipatan temple, the crowd raised the "Jai Shri Ram" slogan.
Sharing a live video of the event on X, Shah said in a post in Hindi: "I salute this huge crowd of people who took to the streets in Amethi to form the Modi government."
Amid performances by local artistes and sloganeering on both sides of the road, the crowd was seen waving at Shah and Irani.
In his address, Shah expressed his gratitude to the people who waited for long in the scorching heat to catch a glimpse of him and said, "I thank the people of Amethi from my heart. I had come here to take part in a roadshow around the same time in 2019 and here I am again."
He appealed to the voters of Amethi to ensure Irani's poll victory again.
Irani is the incumbent MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Amethi.
Taking a dig at former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who was defeated by Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Shah said, "Big leaders who have been presidents of a national party say that Amethi and Raebareli are our family's seats. What I want to ask them is, which seat in a democracy is considered to be someone's property? It is the people who decide who their leader would be."
Referring to Gandhi's poll defeat from Amethi in 2019, the home minister claimed that "he has not even been able to forget it and that is why he has gone to Raebareli. I have come from Raebareli and they (Congress) are going to lose from Raebareli as well".
Accusing the Gandhis of not doing anything for the development of Amethi, Shah said during the COVID-19 crisis, no one from the Gandhi family came to inquire about the condition of the people here, while Prime Minister Modi provided free vaccination for everyone.
"This election is between Rahul Gandhi, who was born with a silver spoon, and Narendra Modi, who was born in a poor family. As soon as the heat increases, Gandhi leaves for Bangkok," he said.
Talking about Modi's push for development, Irani said the prime minister has provided houses to 1.14 lakh poor families in Amethi. The devotees of Lord Ram here will double up as "Hanuman of democracy" and vote on May 20 to make Modi the prime minister again, she said.
