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| Edited By: DNA |Source: DNA |Updated: Jan 25, 2019, 07:00 AM IST
A purported news story on Tuesday suggested that Rahul Gandhi would be contesting from three Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in the forthcoming general election. That this was fake news was confirmed 24 hours later when the Congress announced that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would be the party in charge for eastern UP.
The announcement of Priyanka’s candidature came out of the blue. It came as a huge surprise that Priyanka Gandhi, who had kept herself aloof from the family business, would now join active politics. Yet, the fact that she has been fielded clearly reflects the Congress position in India’s politically most crucial state.
The move is based on the fact that 2019 is likely to be a make or break election for the party, which is looking down the barrel of the gun with less than 50 Lok Sabha seats at present. Another rout and it could be curtains for India’s grand old party.
The appointment is also a tacit admission that the baton has been passed on. Traditionally, the Nehru-Gandhi family has kept at least two or more constituencies in UP as part of the family bailiwick, most of them in east-central UP — Amethi, Sultanpur and Rae Bareli.
Jawaharlal Nehru, himself contested from Phulpur, while Feroze Gandhi from Rae Bareli. With Sonia Gandhi’s illness, and her obvious inability to contest the election, this tradition was under threat. With Priyanka most likely to contest from a seat in eastern UP, this family tradition would be maintained. Naturally then, it would make this region the hottest political turf in the country. Because BJP’s biggest guns are also contesting from here — Prime Minister Narendra Modi is MP from Varanasi, Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur and Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, which is also close to eastern UP.
There is yet another factor for pitching in the brother-sister duo from UP: to regain the influence which the family wielded since the country’s first general election held in 1952. The domination of India’s first family was largely fashioned by its political influence in UP. This magical spell came to an end in 1989 and the fortunes of the Congress, as well as the family, have been in a tailspin since then.
What has undoubtedly aided the decision is the stand of the two strong regional parties in the state, SP and BSP, to keep Congress out of an alliance in the state. That has hurt — a snub, making the once-mighty party appear like a pariah. There is little doubt that the important vote banks in UP have deserted the Congress over the years.
Yet in 2009, there appeared to be some kind of revival when it won 21 Lok Sabha seats. Just when the party looked to be on the rebound, it was done in by the Modi wave in 2014. It won two family seats, Sonia and Rahul’s. Maybe, Priyanka with her likeness to her legendary grandmother is just the tonic that Congress needs.
