By – Atul Chandra
Salman Khurshid’s announcement that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be the chief minister’s face in Uttar Pradesh has not only come too late but has also put her political future on the line.
In an earlier statement, too, Khurshid said that the Congress will be fighting the 2022 Assembly elections under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi. Galvanising the party when its presence at the grass-roots is not visible at all will be a difficult task despite her relatively better image.
The prevailing environment is also not conducive for Congress general-secretary for UP to dive headlong into the state’s political cesspool. The BJP is well-entrenched, the Samajwadi Party is all girded up and the BSP is banking on Brahmins and Jatavs. Congress doesn’t even have Jitin Prasada and other leaders of stature for a credible show. Above all, PGV’s charisma too has waned.
Mayawati, who despite strong denials of being in cahoots with the BJP like Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM, never misses a chance to rant against the Congress to kill whatever dreams the party must be nurturing to revive its fortunes.
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That the Congress has been out of power in the State for decades is another drag factor. Its seven MLAs in the present House hardly make a difference in state politics. Those who contest elections dream of ministerial berths, which have eluded the Congress legislators over many, many years. Their wait for a Congress government has been endless.
That is why state Congress leaders and workers clamoured for Priyanka, thinking that she has the required mojo to lead the party to a much-needed win. For decades they have been demanding that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra be made chief ministerial face for the party’s revival in the State. But she was never allowed to venture beyond Rae Bareli, her mother Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency and Amethi, to campaign for her brother Rahul Gandhi during elections. Those were ritualistic appearances and the party continued to deny her the role she deserved. She virtually remained sidelined because of the Congress’ and Sonia Gandhi’s obsession for Rahul Gandhi despite his successive failures and theatrics like tearing of a paper at a rally in Lucknow in 2012.
After the party’s rout in 2017 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when it could win only seven and one seats, workers demanded that Priyanka be made UP CM face as she was looked at as being more charismatic and a better orator than her brother who could not retain his Amethi Lok Sabha seat. Later in 2019 she was made Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern UP. Her election tourism was of little use as the Congress went into a freefall.
Read also: UP Congress veterans question Priyanka’s leadership
This time PGV, who worked relentlessly to help migrants during the second wave of Covid-19, seems to have the party’s mandate to strategise and select candidates for the 2022 elections. But the downside is that she is still not seen moving around the State or staying here for a long duration. This, critics fear, could prove to be counter-productive. Senior party leader Onkar Nath Singh does not agree and is confident of Congress revival in UP under the leadership of PGV.