Congress to give 40% tickets to women in UP Assembly polls: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

New Delhi: Months ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress party has decided that it will give 40 per cent of the total election tickets to women in the state.

Addressing a press conference, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "The Congress party has decided that it will give 40 per cent of the total election tickets to women. These tickets will be given on the basis of merit and not just on the basis of caste or religion."

"I have taken this decision for women's empowerment. There is no other political motive, agenda behind this decision," she added.

Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Uttar Pradesh government in the state over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, she said, "Unfortunately, those who mow down people in the state are protected by the Centre and those who get killed, mowed down plead for justice here."

"We all saw what happened in Hathras, Lakhimpur....what do you expect from such a BJP government," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 Assembly seats. The party secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for 403-member Assembly. Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, BSP won 19 while Congress could manage to win only seven seats.