Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meets family members of veteran Congressman Umashankar Misra, a DCC president who died following prolonged a illness, in Rae Bareli. (Photo: PTI)
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address more meetings in Punjab than Uttar Pradesh since the emerging picture is making clearer that Priyanka will play a big role in the Uttar Pradesh battle.
AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday had a long meeting with the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi on UP, party sources said.
According to them, the party’s programmes for UP — holding public meetings, undertaking yatras and road shows — could be announced after Eid, that is betweeen July 7 and 15. Priyanka will not be the party’s chief ministerial candidate, but she will be “star campaigner”, they said, whose campaigning could check the caste divide and communal polarisation, to some extent.
There is a realisation in the party that if it can’t use her this time then it could be an advantage for the BJP which cannot afford to lose UP.
Talk in Congress circles is that Priyanka could fight the next Lok Sabha elections from UP — either from Rae Bareli or Amethi. They said she has been expanding her role in the party since the last two or three years.
The Punjab elections, to be held in the next few months, are more important for the Congress than UP. This is not because the party has the organisational network or a strong face in Capt Amrinder Singh there, but its outcome could have a bearing on the Uttarakhand and Goa Assembly elections to be held either with the Punjab polls or later (in early March).
Besides, its victory could boost the morale of the party workers in UP whose polling could begin from the last week of March or April.
Election strategist Prashant Kishor, whom the party has engaged, is happy to work with Amrinder Singh in Punjab, but has been insisting on Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi to lead the UP electoral battle from the front after realising that he cannot deliver without a “face”. He had succeeded in the Lok Sabha elections, and later in the Bihar polls, because Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar were the “faces”.
In the last Assembly polls, the Congress had used Rahul Gandhi excessively and failed because of poor organisation, absence of credible leaders and selection of candidates. The UP Congress has been in favour of a pre-poll alliance with the BSP but this can be possible only if Ms Mayawati senses that her party cannot check the BJP and the ruling Samajwadi Party. Though Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party is pegging its hopes on the minorities’ votes, the latter will vote for a party or a combination of parties which can defeat the BJP. A Congress-BSP alliance could consolidate the Dalits, Muslims and Brahmins which has been a winning combination. The Brahmins have not been easy about the BJP ever since it started projecting non Brahmins under the banner of hard Hindutva. Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday remained tight lipped over reports that Priyanka would be its star campaigner in UP and also on the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party chief.
“Whenever it happens, you will know,” party spokesman Jairam Ramesh told reporters, quoting AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad when asked about reports that Priyanka would lead the campaign in UP and address as many as 150 meetings.
