Chennai, April 7: Union Minister Smriti Irani has slammed Rahul Gandhi, stating that many like him have come and gone, but "Hindustan is, was, and will remain."

"If my voice reaches Rahul Gandhi, then I want to tell him that many like you have come and many have gone; Hindustan is, was, and will remain," Irani said on Saturday.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani holds an election campaign in support of central Chennai BJP candidate Vinoj P Selvam at the YMCA auditorium in the Veppery district of Chennai.

Addressing a gathering, Irani emphasised the significance of the completion of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
"There are states in this country where INDI alliance partners killed people for saying 'Jai Shri Ram'. It happened in West Bengal and Kerala. Today, it is our greatest fortune that we are standing here with our heads bowed at the feet of Lord Ram. The date was told, the temple was built, and see the glory of Lord Ram that those people who denied his existence, Lord Ram called them also," Irani said.

"Their arrogance was evident as they even rejected the leadership of Ram," she added.

The Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya took place on January 22, 2024.

Meanwhile, in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attacked the Congress and asserted that the party opposed the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Ayodhya Ram Temple to the extent that it expelled a party member for six years who had attended the event.

Addressing a public gathering in Ajmer, PM Modi asked the gathering if they were happy that Ram Mandir had been built.

"Ram Mandir has been built, are you happy or not? Going to Pran Pratistha was opposed, is it appropriate? Not only this but if someone went to Pran Pratishtha, he was expelled from the Congress Party for 6 years. Can this happen in this country? Can you imagine the country without Lord Ram?" PM Modi said.

Voting for all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the only constituency in Puducherry will be held in the first phase on April 19.

During polling for the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats.

The DMK-led alliance secured a landslide victory by bagging 38 out of 39 seats. The Congress, which was also a part of the alliance, bagged 8 seats out of the nine contested.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, won only one seat.

The polling will be conducted in seven phases across the country from April 19 to June 1. The counting of votes will be on June 4.

(ANI)

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