Priyanka Gandhi wants to avoid people's questions, says Smriti Irani

UP elections 2017 - Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Smriti Irani on Wednesday attacked Priyanka Gandhi saying the Congress leader is not campaigning in Amethi as she cannot face people's questions.

The Union textiles minister addressed rallies and press conference here, where she did not give direct reply when asked if she would be the party's chief ministerial candidate if it comes to power.

Every BJP worker wants that the party forms the next government in Uttar Pradesh, she said on the question of chief ministerial candidate.

She said that despite losing the Lok Sabha poll from Amethi in 2014 to Rahul Gandhi she has been working for the people of the constituency.

But, Priyanka Gandhi has not gone to campaign in Amethi because of the "unfulfilled" promises, she said.

"Priyanka wants to avoid people's questions," she said.

Asked if Samajwadi Party-Congress (SP-Congress) alliance has in any way affected the prospects of BJP in the state, she said Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav went with Congress because he was not confident of a victory alone.(Read More)

Win at all costs? PM Modi's reforms meet realpolitik in Uttar Pradesh polls

Elections 2017 - Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to clean up politics. The man running the ruling party's campaign in a crucial state election, who is facing 11 criminal cases, says it will take a while.

"At a time of elections, one has to forget every other aspect and just focus on victory," said Keshav Prasad Maurya, as his three-vehicle convoy carrying police with automatic rifles sped through the countryside.

Polls open on Saturday in Uttar Pradesh, with a population of some 220 million, and on the ground Modi's loftier aims for a new India seem far away.

Maurya, the state's president for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says the charges against him are false and politically motivated; unless he is convicted, they do not prevent him from holding office.

His bosses are not concerned.

An official at the prime minister's office referred questions about Maurya and his criminal cases to the BJP, where an aide to party president and Modi confidant Amit Shah said there was no problem.(Read More)