By – Raza Hasnain Naqvi

General Secretary of the Indian National Congress party Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is on the march in Uttar Pradesh. Her sharp words and recent actions have made the media and Uttar Pradesh curious about what she hopes to achieve in the next few months before the UP assembly elections in 2022.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is not new to politics. She comes from a very political and prominent Nehru-Gandhi family where her grandmother Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. Her father, Rajiv Gandhi, was also the Prime Minister of India. Her mother, Sonia Gandhi, is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from the Rae Bareli constituency in UP. At the same time, her brother Rahul Gandhi is a sitting Lok Sabha MP from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala.

She has often campaigned in Rae Bareli and Amethi during elections for her mother Sonia Gandhi and her brother during her early years. When she became General Secretary of the party in January 2019, she was made incharge of Uttar Pradesh (East). She has campaigned for the party in Kerala and Assam also, meeting supporters and the general public.

However, Priyanka’s aggressive reach-out-to-the-public approach has emerged noticeably since 2020. She was already popular among the public in Amethi and Rae Bareli. But ever since she chose to accept a post in Congress, she has been speaking in many public rallies and gatherings and drawing large crowds. Many people of Uttar Pradesh are curious to hear what Priyanka has to say to them. This kind of curiosity is new for many Congress workers in UP also. They have been serving the party in UP for the past few years, but they haven’t witnessed this kind of public attendance in Congress rallies that Priyanka Gandhi addresses.

Read also: Priyanka Gandhi Takes a Jibe at Akhilesh and Mayawati for Inaction

Meeting Victim Families

There was the Sonbhadra massacre incident that happened on 17th July 2019 in Umbha village. Some people came and fired upon Adivasis in the village over a dispute of 112-acre land. 11 Adivasis were killed and over 25 injured in the incident. Priyanka Gandhi went and met the families of the victims.

In the Hathras incident of 14th September 2020, a Dalit woman was gang-raped and murdered by four people. Her body was then allegedly cremated without her family’s consent by the police at night. Priyanka went and met the family of the victim.

The latest incident of the Tikunia Lakhimpur massacre of 3rd October 2021 has again brought headlines in the media for Priyanka Gandhi. Eight persons were killed and many others injured when the vehicle belonging to MoS Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni ran over farmers on the road.  

The Opposition was up in arms against the BJP led government in Centre and UP when it came to light that the lead vehicle in the three-vehicle convey that mowed down the farmers was allegedly driven by Ashish Mishra, son of the BJP government minister Ajay Mishra.

Priyanka Gandhi emerged as the most vocal face of the Opposition in hurling allegations against the BJP government. She was detained and then arrested in Sitapur so that she could not reach Lakhimpur. The UP administration wanted to stop her from meeting the families of victims of the Lakhimpur incident. After verbal spats with government officials, the police allowed Priyanka and other Opposition leaders to go to Lakhimpur. On 12th October 2021, she even attended ‘antim ardas’ organised in Lakhimpur to pay last respects to the slain farmers.

These three incidents have given a strong profile and media mileage to Priyanka. The Uttar Pradesh public is taking note of her words and actions and watching how the Priyanka Gandhi-led UP Congress and other Opposition parties are raising public issues on the road.

Read also: Priyanka Gandhi arrested, kept in PAC guesthouse

Strong Choice of Words

Priyanka addressed a spirited public rally on 10th October 2021 in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Titled ‘Kisan Nyay rally’, the essential points in this rally were not just her choice of words in her speech but the apparent enthusiasm displayed by Congress supporters on the ground.

The striking visuals of the rally day were two giant banners at the bottom of the stage from which she stood and spoke. The banner text was:

• Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni ko barkhaast karo
  (Dismiss Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni)
• Lakhimpur narsanhaar ke hatyaaron ko giraftaar karo
  (Arrest killers of Lakhimpur massacre)

• Teen kale krishi kanoono ko wapas lo
  (Take back the three black farm laws)

Her approval for these banners on stage means that she wants to keep the pressure on the UP government for action. She wants the public to know that Congress cares for them and that the party will help in getting justice for farmers, in this case.

She wore a big yellow teeka on her forehead. She then told the crowd that it was the 4th day of Navratra, and she was keeping Navratra fast. Then she started Devi Stuti with Chandi Paath and the slogan ‘Jai Mata di’. 

As she went deeper into her speech and rally topic, she said, “yadi aapke jeevan mein tarakki nahin hui, to aa jaiye mere saath khade ho jaiye, kandhe se kandha lagaiye aur ladiye.”
(If you haven’t seen progress in your life, then come and stand with me shoulder-to-shoulder and fight)

She also added: “badaliye is sarkaar ko, parivartan laiye, apne pradesh ko badaliye.”

(Change this government; bring a change, bring a change in your state.)

With such clear words, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra seeks to bring more supporters into her party fold and convey to the masses that Congress is a force for change. On 11th Oct 2021, Priyanka sat on a Maun dharna below Gandhi statue in Hazratganj, Lucknow, with her party supporters urging justice on the Lakhimpur massacre.

So, both with words and silence, Priyanka is going all out to convey her party’s current slogan:

Parivartan ka Sankalp

Congress hi Vikalp

Whether it is her party workers, party supporters, the Opposition, the general voter or the ruling BJP government, she is pushing the party slogan into all mindsets.

Read also: Priyanka Gandhi remains under detention in Sitapur, UP

Making Congress Talking Point

Priyanka and her team are making all efforts in creating new initiatives on the ground so that, at the very least, the voting public starts talking about Congress. For the last 30 years, the image of Congress has significantly declined in authority and reduced to becoming irrelevant as a political party in UP’s landscape.

With BSP, SP and BJP taking centre stage in all elections, whether Parliamentary or Assembly conducted in UP, Congress has occupied an ‘also-ran-4th place’ in the electoral race. This situation has led to nil discussions about Congress in political drawing rooms and influential voters of UP so far.

Priyanka is keen to find a solution to this zero-discussion problem. She understands the power of the media. Like an accomplished politician, she is now using that media power to drive her political message home. She knows that the media follows her everywhere and talks minutely about every step she takes.

Getting the media to talk about her and broadcast her thoughts and actions to their vast network of audiences everywhere would be a foundational victory for Priyanka. This step would get the media-content consuming public to acknowledge her political presence and that of her party. Stage One of the political building of Congress in Uttar Pradesh can then be complete. The next step would be the more challenging one of building a strong, efficient organisational structure in UP.