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Senior Congress leaders of Uttar Pradesh absent from key campaign events in state
Congress leaders from other states like Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan’s Sachin Pilot and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan have been active at campaign events in Uttar Pradesh
Senior Congress leaders of Uttar Pradesh like Raj Babbar and many others have been conspicuous by their absence from any major campaign event for the state assembly polls so far.
On the other hand, Congress leaders from other states like Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan have been active in Uttar Pradesh.
Baghel has been undertaking door-to-door campaigns in western UP. Pilot and Chavan, too, have recently attended programmes linked to the party’s poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh.
“Yes, we have not seen many senior Congress leaders from the state active in UP. We have not seen Raj Babbar, too,” said a senior Congress office bearer on condition of anonymity. Babbar could not be reached for his comments.
Raj Babbar was the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president in the 2017 assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress has remained out of power in UP since 1989. Many of its senior leaders, including former UPCC presidents Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Jagdambika Pal, former Union ministers Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh and a number of others, have left the party over the years. It has been left with only a countable number of recognizable faces with mass appeal who may be used for campaigning or organisational purposes in the state.
So, senior leaders like former UP minister and former MP Pramod Tiwari, former chairman of the national commission for scheduled castes and former MP PL Punia, former UPCC president Nirmal Khatri, former Union minister and ex-state Congress chief Salman Khurshid, former Union minister Pradeep Jain ‘Aditya’, ex-MP Rajesh Mishra and some others only are being seen at different party programmes and meetings at the UPCC headquarters in Lucknow or elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh.
“Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to arrive in Lucknow any day now. She is likely to soon deploy more party leaders from UP for work relating to elections and campaigning in different constituencies. The Congress has released a list of 30 senior leaders as star campaigners. But the Congress needs to do much more for campaigning at the grass roots level now,” said another leader.
The Congress has also decided to deploy one or two senior leaders from other states as observers in every assembly constituency. Most of these leaders have arrived or are arriving to assist the party and its candidates in their preparations for filing of nomination papers and campaigning in different assembly constituencies of the state.
“Yes, many leaders have left the Congress. But those still with the Congress may not be feeling enthusiastic, thinking that the party is on the decline in Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should think of involving more local leaders and strengthen the party organisation in the state instead of opting for leaders from out of Uttar Pradesh. People may turn up to attend meetings of outsiders. But they don’t have mass appeal,” said Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of department, political science, Lucknow University.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress has so far taken out Pratigya Yatras, launched “Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon” (I am a girl, I can fight) campaigns, released women and youth manifestos and white papers. The party’s door-to-door campaigns at grassroots are yet to pick up momentum apparently due to lack of manpower.
The Congress has not entered into an alliance with any political party so far, deciding to take go it all alone in 2022 UP polls keeping in view its experiences of alliances in the past. The Congress contested the 2017 assembly elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, fielding its candidates on 114 seats for the 403-member UP assembly. It won only seven seats, securing 6.25% of the total votes and 22.09% votes on seats contested. In 2012, it had won 28 out of the 355 seats contested, securing 11.65% of the total votes and 13.26% on the seats contested. The Congress had aligned with the BSP in the 1996 assembly elections, contesting 126 seats in the 425-member state assembly of the undivided Uttar Pradesh. It won 33 seats and secured 8.35% of the total votes. Its vote share on seats contested was 29.13%.
