Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra speaks to India TV
Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has admitted that the fight in Uttar Pradesh is tough. In an exclusive interview with India TV, Priyanka sought to blame the Samajwadi Party for the party's present condition in the state. She said that Congress lost its ground in Uttar Pradesh because it contested elections in partnerships.
"I admit it is a tough war, but I am proud of my party and workers that we are fighting alone on 400 seats for the first time in 30 years. We are fighting the 2022 election with full strength," she said. "This is a new beginning for the Congress."
"The Congress couldn't contest (on all seats) for a long time. As a result, the organisational set up weakened because we contested elections in alliances. The second rung of leaders didn't get chance.... but the situation has changed now," she said.
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On leaders quitting the Congress, she said, "I am nothing without my party workers. They are very important. New leadership will emerge after the polls. It is wrong to say we don't have a second rung of leaders. We have leaders who have risen from the grassroots level."
When asked about the BJP leaders claiming that Congress is nowhere in the picture in the UP election, she replied, "If Congress is as insignificant as they think, why do they (BJP, SP) keep talking about the party?" She said her party in UP wants the focus to be on development and not on negative propaganda based on caste or communalism that is going around.
Attacking Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over his '80 vs 20' remark, Priyanka said, "I want to ask Yogi Adityanath why he doesn't talk about unemployment, price rise. He should talk about the percentage of these rather than about using phrases such as 80-20."
She said that there is no governance in Uttar Pradesh. "Law and order and encounter raj are different from each other. He didn't govern... If there was governance in UP, new employment opportunities would have generated, farmers would have got the right price for their produces, women would have got security."
She also trashed the 'parivarwad' charge by the BJP, saying, "Then why did they give tickets to the sons of their party leaders."
When asked whether Congress is open to joining the ranks with the SP after the poll, she didn't categorically rule out. "The party will take a call when a situation arises."
She also slammed the rival parties' leaders, especially the BJP, for distorting Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi's 'bhaiya' remark directed at the people of UP. She said that "all that CM Charanjit Singh Channi said was that Punjab should be run by Punjabis".
The Congress, which has been reduced to a virtual non-player in Uttar Pradesh over the past years, is contesting polls with youth and women in focus. It has reserved 40 per cent of tickets for women in the state. Priyanka has been spearheading the Congress' campaign in the state where the party has been out of power since 1989. Uttar Pradesh had a Congress Chief Minister till 1967, then again from 1969 to 1970. The state saw another CM from Congress gracing the position until 1975, barring a brief period of the President’s rule.
Congress leader ND Tiwari was the last Congress leader to serve as the CM of Uttar Pradesh. He held the position thrice -- 1976 to 1977; 1984 to 1985 and 1988 to 1989. Since then, there hasn’t been a single Congress CM who has ruled the country's most populated state.
Several opinion polls have predicted a rout for the grand old party in the Assembly polls. According to an opinion poll by Ground Zero Research for India TV, the Congress party will win 2 to 5 seats in the polls.
In the previous election held in 2017, the BJP had registered a stunning win, bagging 312 of 403 Legislative Assembly seats. The ruling Samajwadi Party had secured 47 seats and its then alliance partner -- Congress won just seven.
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