As the third phase of campaigning in the Uttar Pradesh polls came to a close, the terse appreance of Priyanka Gandhi in Rae Bareli last Friday raised several questions. It is a well known that Priyanka is a star campaigner for the SP-Congress alliance and that there was a huge clamour to have her campaign in the state. But she has shied away from active campaigning so far.
In Rae Bareli, she addressed meetings only in favour of the Congress candidates and not the alliance. She only held meetings with the Congress workers and left aside the SP contestants. This shows that all is not well between the alliance partners at present. It may be recalled that Amethi and Rae Bareli seats have been a bone of contention between the two parties. Congress wanted their pocket boroughs, but SP was not willing to yield and it fielded a few candidates there.
Political analysts attribute Priyanka’s reluctance to disagreements in the seat sharing between both the parties. In the previous assembly polls, Congress had lost all the six seats in Raibareli district.
So this time, in order to save Raibareli, Priyanka had made an appearance in the political scene. Though it remains to be seen how many rallies she will address in the future, her limited appearances have forced the people to speculate about the well being of the alliance.
