On Monday unsigned black and white posters emerged in Uttar Pradesh’s Ameti with Smriti Irani’s photograph asking for the whereabouts of the MP. All India Mahila Congress, the women wing of the Congress party tweeted as well on the issue.
The All India Mahila Congress shared the poster from its official twitter handle and tweeted , “Ameti is looking for its missing MP.”
Irani took to Twitter and in a series of tweets replied, “When Corona struck Amethi, your (Congress) leaders violated lockdown rules. Do you want me to encourage people to come of out their homes so that you can play Twitter-Twitter? Amethi may not be dear to you, but it is to me. Stop playing with people’s lives.”
In another tweet, the minister said, “Till now 22,150 migrants have returned to Amethi by bus and 8,322 by train after following all rules. I can give the name of each person, each family. Can Sonia ji give similar details for Rae Bareli?”
Tweeting about the missing posters put up against her, the minister said in another tweet, “If you had put up posters, you should have, at least, given your name too. Why so shy? Is it because you know that people will never forgive those who have shamefully referred to the incident where I joined in the cremation procession of a local leader?”
The minister further stated that she was constantly in touch with the district officials and had made efforts to ensure that every deserving person got the benefit of the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Yojana. “Please let us know how many times Sonia ji has made such efforts for her constituency?” she asked.
The minister wrapped up her series of tweets by informing about her visits to Amethi. “I have visited Amethi ten times in eight months and spent 14 days in Amethi. How many times has Sonia ji visited her constituency?” she stated.
All India Mahila Congress said replying to Smiti Irani , “Due to the posters by people of Ameti, you got unsettled and emerged out. But sadly only on Twitter.”
The missing posters, interestingly, were widely shared on the social media platforms by various Congress leaders, though they refused that the posters had been put up by party leaders.
The poster said that the BJP MP had visited the district ‘just for a few hours twice since she won the 2019 election.’
Congress MLC Deepak Singh also tweeted on the Amethi MP’s visits to her constituency.
He said, “Smriti Irani ji after becoming the MP you came here on June 22, 2019 for the first time. Then on July 6, 2019 for 4 hours, on August 28 for 2 hours. In between once for 4 hours. It’s been a long time that you have visited Amethi, some of your party workers, and all the people of Amethi are missing you. Not just for hours, please spend few days in Amethi.”
The black and white posters, carrying an image of the MP, read, “We have seen you play ‘antakshari’ on Twitter, give food to some individuals, but the people of Amethi are now looking for you to address their needs and difficulties.”
The posters said that ‘Amethi was a tour destination for Irani’.
When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was the MP of Amethi the ‘missing’ poster wars in the constituency had been a regular phenomenon. It was Gandhi who used to face similar flak that questioned his absence from his constituency till 2019.