A former senior Congress leader in Uttar Pradesh has commented that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will bring the same fate to the party in the state as she did to Amethi in the Lok Sabha elections of May 2019.
Priyanka had been the 'face' of her brother Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, which he won three times consecutively from 2004. But he lost to Smriti Irani of the BJP in 2019. This had been one of the biggest electoral upsets of 2019 as Amethi had always been considered a Congress 'safe seat' since 1967, except for four years. Rahul had campaigned elsewhere in the country, making just a solitary appearance at what, in political circles, was referred to as the ‘family bastion’.
Rahul lost the seat by over 55,000 votes.
Satyadev Tripathi, a senior Congress man expelled from the party in 2019 for indiscipline, warned that Priyanka will ensure the same fate for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Tripathi was a former state-level minister.
The Congress has just seven members in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.
Earlier on Monday, former Union minister Salman Khurshid had commented Priyanka will be the face of the party in the state elections and that the party will not form any alliances for the polls.
There is nothing new in the claims and it in no way means that Priyanka is the party’s projection for the chief ministerial post. The Congress has not projected a CM candidate in the last few elections. The standard line is that a decision on the issue would be taken by the party’s legislative group after the election.
As for an alliance, none of the big players are looking to join hands with the Congress. It can only become a rallying point for the smaller parties.
“The Congress has an attitude of superiority. It believes it deserves a greater number of seats in any alliance even though it might not be in a winnable position,” said a Congress spokesperson.
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There are other fundamental problems that the party must contend with. Its grass-roots organisation is weak and no match for the BJP, which has in-charges for every single page of the electoral list.
There are other concerns that will not allow the party to go all out to project Priyanka as the face for the election. Such a no-holds announcement would mean that the responsibility for the loss will lie solely at her feet. And the Congress is known to always shield the Gandhi family from such reality checks.
