Lucknow, May 7 (IANS): Why Congress President Rahul Gandhi never made it to Amethi on polling day?

This question was repeatedly asked by Union Minister Smriti Irani, the BJP candidate from Amethi. She claimed in the afternoon that Rahul Gandhi had landed at the Fursatganj airstrip and was prompting booth capturing.

Her claim was found to be baseless because no aircraft had landed in Fursatganj with the Congress President. Irani then claimed that ‘Rahul bhaag gaye'.

Congress spokesman Surendra Rajput told IANS: "Rahul Gandhi is now the national president of the Congress and he was busy campaigning in Haryana. Congress workers had been assigned the duty of poll management. Smriti Irani has been levelling baseless allegations, including one of booth capturing which has been turned down by the Election Commission too."

Former Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, meanwhile, said: "Smriti Irani wanted to create confusion which she did in Amethi because she had realized that she was fighting a losing battle. All she could do was to send the media in a spin.

"The people of Amethi have voted for the Congress President who is going to win with a bigger margin than in 2014."

Pramod Tiwari said that Irani had even accused Rahul Gandhi of being responsible for the death of a man who was not admitted to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. "Can anything be more ridiculous than this?" he asked.