(Image source from: Kumar Vishwas mocks Smriti Irani)

The election battle over the boring old bastion of the Gandhis, Amethi just got spiced up.

What was considered as the palisade of the Gandi scion, with Rahul Gandhi facing no major opposition until now, has for the first time become one of the 'must watch' constituencies in this election, perhaps only next to Varanasi that sees BJP prime ministerial candidate take AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal head on.

The tug-of-war over Amethi seat kicked off when the Aam Aadmi Party pitted its colorful Kumar Vishwas against Rahul Gandhi.

Not to be left behind, the BJP too joined the war by fielding Smriti Irani - the actress turned politician and vice-president of the party to contest this elections from the Amethi seat. And that waged off a new war in the constituency - a war of acerbic, bitter, hair-raising words.

 

While the AAP leader candidate from Amethi said "Its not Irani or Pakistani, it's AAP", the BJP's nominee retaliated back saying "Mr. Kumar has a history of being disrespectful towards women.”

With actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani entering the Amethi fray as a BJP candidate, Kumar Vishwas couldn't hold himself back from commenting in his usual acerbic way.

“The message has reached villages. Now whether Irani comes, Pakistani comes, Italian or American... But Amethi has already taken a decision,” the AAP candidate from Amethi Lok Sabha constituency said.

 

Mr. Vishwas also went to to say that BJP and Congress were working conjointly to bag Varanasi and Amethi seats.

“I think BJP is doing either some face saving or some nexus, may have been through Ahmed (Patel) uncle that you give us in Varanasi, we will give you in Amethi,” he said

Reacting to the jibe, Ms. Irani said, “The understanding between AAP and Congress is publicly known and was very visible when they formed a government in Delhi.”

Taking on the AAP candidate, she said, “As far as Vishwas is concerned, I do not expect an iota of respect from him, especially being a woman. He has a history of being disrespectful towards women. That has been topic of conversation in many a channel.”

 

“In terms of calling me an Irani or a Pakistani, I am sure his general knowledge is quite reduced to when he comes to my own personal background. I do not know whether Vishwas wants to fight the elections on issues of development. I will only say that the contest is between Congress and BJP and not between any B team of the Congress party,” she said.

AW: Suchorita Choudhury