Rahul Gandhi remembers Amethi only to file his papers every five years: Smriti Irani

Union minister BJP leader Smriti Irani who is contesting the

Lok Sabha election

from Amethi in UP, against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday questioned how can a person who could not construct a toilet in his constituency challenge "the lion of

Gujarat

".

Irani was speaking at a rally on Pedak Road in Rajkot. "The person who could not construct a toilet in 15 years in Amethi is challenging Gujarat’s lion," the minister said.

Campaigning for BJP candidate Mohan Kundaria, Irani alleged, "There is a place called Gaurganj in Amrethi. In the 1980s Congress leaders told farmers that give us land we will give you employment. They took the farmer’s land, started a factory for a few days and then asked their friend to sell them the factory land. Even today Rahul Gandhi is sitting on the land that was grabbed."

The Union minister earlier said that the Congress chief remembers his constituency only once in five years, when he has to file his nomination papers for elections. She accused Gandhi of being insensitive to women from poor families in Amethi who have to relieve themselves in the open due to lack of toilets at their houses.

"Rahul Gandhi who lives in palaces does not feel sad about the poor women from his constituency who have to go out in the open for defecation," Irani said while addressing a rally at Patan.

"He (Rahul) is such a person who shows up in his own

Lok Sabha

constituency only once in five years and that too because it is compulsory to file nomination papers from the head office (constituency," she said. She further said that if filing nominations was not mandatory, Gandhi would not have bothered to visi Amethi even once in five years.