Union Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday attacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for allegedly sympathising with those who raised anti-national slogans at JNU and asserted that the people of Gujarat will never support his party in the upcoming Assembly polls.

Addressing a gathering of tribals as part of the BJP’s Gujarat Gaurav Yatra — march for honour — Irani accused the former Congress governments at the Centre of stalling the Narmada project, under the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, “out of its grudge”.

“The entire country had witnessed how Rahul Gandhi rushed to extend his support to those who chanted Bharat tere tukde honge (India, you will be broken into pieces) in Delhi. Since this is the land of Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi, I want to know if this land (Gujarat) will support Rahul (in the polls),” she said.

The crowd responded with a resounding “no”.

Gujarat is likely to go to polls in December.

Reacting to Rahul’s charge that no “real development” had taken place in Gujarat under BJP rule, the Union Minister for Textiles and Information and Broadcasting said the Congress leader remembers the State and its people only when elections are around the corner. “Though Gujarat had fought for Narmada project, the work could not be completed in 55 years... Railways did not give permission to lay canals in Rajkot and Anand (during the UPA rule).

“The Congress did that out of its grudge against the BJP. It decided on not giving water till the party comes to power in Gujarat,” said Irani in her speech in Gujarati.

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