Lucknow
The eagerly awaited face-off between Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi during their scheduled visit to Amethi on Friday turned out to be a disappointment as Rahul first postponed and then cancelled his tour. His trip has now been rescheduled for next week.

However, Irani, who had lost to Rahul from Amethi in 2014, attacked him in his bastion. Describing Rahul’s reported aspiration to become the PM as “Mungerilal ke haseen sapne”, Irani said neither Mayawati nor Akhilesh or Mamata Banerjee endorsed this view. She said despite the SC order and the BJP MPs keeping their point of view, the Congress and Gandhi were trying in vain to derive political mileage by whipping up lies about so-called corruption in the Rafale deal.