The UP Assembly elections will take place in 2022 and there is even a proposal that Priyanka contest then to lift the mood of the average party worker
By Abdulhafiz Lakhani New Delhi/Lukhnow
After their terrible showing in the Hyderabad municipal corporation polls, several in the party are now demanding that if Rahul Gandhi is not serious about becoming their president, then she should don the mantle. The death of Ahmed Patel- the key man for Gandhi family has shaken the party when party faces the toughest challenge for existence.
The GHMC almost became Congress-mukt in recent municipal polls. The Congress also won far fewer seat than the BJP in the panchayat polls in Rajasthan, despite a campaign by the party that the Modi government is anti-farmer.
Congress is at its lowest tally ever in the Rajya Sabha. Its MLAs across states are resigning and joining the BJP or other political parties
Recently, P Chidambaram’s son, Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, suggested that Priyanka should contest the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha by-election in Tamil Nadu. The seat fell vacant on the death of its Congress MP. But Congressmen from Uttar Pradesh (UP) objected, saying that she should fight from their state.
The UP Assembly elections will take place in 2022 and there is even a proposal that Priyanka contest then to lift the mood of the average party worker.
In all likelihood, Sonia Gandhi will lead the party for as long as she wants to and after that, it will probably be led by one of her children. Rahul, after his back-to-back national drubbings, is probably out for good, but Priyanka Gandhi, her daughter, is still a possibility and as she is in charge of the Congress’ 2022 Uttar Pradesh Election strategy, maybe she’ll be able to demonstrate political knowhow and aptitude. However, this is unlikely—when she led the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign in UP, the only winner in the 80 seats contested was her mother in Rae Bareli.
Mrs. Gandhi has voluntarily confined herself to Uttar Pradesh, the state with the most political heft in India. Gandhi’s job title is general secretary, Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are due in 14 months. Recently, the party, under new Gandhi leadership, not only failed to win a single seat of the nine which went to polls but lost its deposit in four seats. The seats are Bulandshahr, Malhani, Naugawan Sadat and Deoria, which is the seat of Uttar Pradesh state president – Ajay Kumar Lalu – a Gandhi appointee.
Priyanka, the Congress’ general secretary in-charge of UP, hasn’t been to the state unit’s Lucknow headquarters since December 2019, and has visited the state just twice since then — once in February to meet activists injured in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Azamgarh, and once in October to meet the family of the Dalit woman allegedly gang-raped and murdered in Hathras.
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