By Pradeep Kapoor
LUCKNOW: There was complete demoralisation in Congress
camp when SP-BSP-RLD alliance left only two seats for Congress in Rae Bareli
and Amethi. But the announcement of Priyanka Gandhi becoming AICC general
secretary for Eastern UP has had an electrifying effect on Congress workers, who
are now counting the seats they can win UP.
The
Congress leadership felt let down by the manner in which BSP national president
accused the party of ignoring the problems of dalits and blamed the party for
corruption. The aggressive Akhilesh campaign against Congress has been
attributed to his eagerness to keep Mayawati in good humour and he has even
preferred to play second fiddle to her. It seems that Akhilesh is more keen for
alliance than Mayawati, who has had no representation in the Lok Sabha as the
party had lost in all seats it contested. But Samajwadi Party had five seats.
Congress
leaders recall as to how with her just one election speech in Rae Bareli
Priyanka Gandhi changed the fortunes in favour of party candidate Satish
Sharma, who was at one stage perceived to be far behind. The entire equation
changed, forcing BJP candidate Arun Nehru to lose his deposit after being the
front runner for most part of the contest.
During
the regime of Mayawati in 2007, when the house of Harijan villager was set on
fire, t Priyanka Gandhi, who was present in Amethi at that time, announced that
she would get it rebuilt through the voluntary work of Congress workers.
Priyanka’s aggressive posturing had forced the Mayawati government to take
steps not only to rebuild the house, but announce a development package for
Sultanpur.
For
over two decades Congress workers used to demand a bigger role for Priyanka
beyond Rae Bareli and Amethi during every Lok Sabha election and sought her
campaign in their areas. But things are not as easy as they appear to be for
Priyanka as the party has been out of power since 1989 and dealing with the
caste politics of UP is a tough call. The Congress used to be a power force to
reckon with in UP due to its support from Brahmins, Harijans and Muslims.
But
since 1989 Congress has lost Brahmins to BJP while the Harijans crossed over to
BSP and Muslims joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav ever since he ordered
firing on the kar sewaks to protect Babri Masjid. Also, due to the Kamandal
politics, Congress lost its vote bank to various other parties.
Now
Congress has only two MPs in Lok Sabha from UP and six MLAs in the assembly,
accounting for six per cent vote share. At a time when Kamandal politics
(clamour for Ram temple and Mandal) has been reinvigorated, it would be a
Herculean task for Priyanka, despite here charisma, to resurrect a party
organisation that has almost been defunct all these years. (IPA Service)
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