DNA Special: 40% women to lead Congress to victory in UP?

You must have often seen that when the shooting of a new film starts, a poster is first released for its promotion. In exactly the same way, today Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra started her campaign in Uttar Pradesh elections through a poster and her strategy is hidden in the slogan written in this poster. The poster reads, "Ladki hu, lad sakti hu" (I am a girl, can fight). You will remember that in the year 2017 when the last time UP elections were held, the Congress and Samajwadi Party contested the elections together and the slogan of these two parties was, "Apne UP Ke Ladke" (Boys of our UP).

These boys were Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav. But at that time, the people of UP did not give even 15 per cent of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh to these boys of UP. Then, Congress fought on 105 seats and won 7 seats. While the Samajwadi Party fought on 298 seats and could win only 47 seats. BJP formed the government with a thumping majority by winning 312 seats. However, Congress hopes that the votes which the boys could not get in the last election will be bagged by the girls of UP. In this effort, today, 49-year-old Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made a big announcement in Lucknow.

She said that in the UP elections to be held next year, Congress will give tickets to women on 40 per cent of the seats.

That is, out of the total 403 seats, women candidates will contest from the Congress in 161 seats.

So far, this has not happened in any state election, when a party has given tickets to women candidates only in about half the seats. That's why we appreciate this effort of Priyanka Gandhi and we believe that she is working hard to strengthen the Congress. But here, it is important to understand the reality along with the election, and you can understand it from this picture.

This picture was taken during Priyanka Gandhi's press conference, in which a total of 10 people were on the stage with her. Of these, seven were men while there were only 3 women including Priyanka Gandhi. This is the real picture of our country's politics. Priyanka Gandhi has given a good slogan for the election campaign, but you can understand the reality from this picture.

Imagine, the party which is launching its election campaign in the name of girls and women, in that too, men have the maximum participation. However, the issue here is not just this picture. The roots of the family of two women leaders who were also present on the stage with Priyanka Gandhi have also been in politics. One of them is Supriya Shrinet, whose father Harshvardhan Singh has been a two-time Congress MP from Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh. And the other leader is Aradhana Mona Mishra, daughter of former Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari.

This type of politics in the name of women empowerment is not new in our country. Women are given tickets by the parties in the elections, but it is also true that these tickets are given to only those women whose family members are in active politics. For example, 33 per cent of the seats in the Panchayati Raj elections in Uttar Pradesh are reserved for women. And in the last election, 3 lakh women won. But according to a report, 77 per cent of these women representatives believe that they do not have the right to take decisions in their hands. Decisions are taken by either her husband or other members of his family. That is, even if women enter politics in this way, there is not much change.

That's why Priyanka Gandhi has tried well, but it is also important to ensure that tickets are not given only to women from political families. However, when Priyanka Gandhi was questioned on this today, she said that she does not consider it wrong.

From this statement, you can understand that the women candidates of Congress in the Uttar Pradesh elections will be from such families, which are already in politics. That is, it may be that the male leader who had to get a ticket from a seat, now his wife or daughter may get a ticket in his place. And we feel that because of this, women's strong claim in politics cannot be ensured.

Women can prove to be a game-changer for any party in the Uttar Pradesh elections. There are a total of 14.12 crore voters in the state, out of which 6.44 crore are female voters while 7.68 crore are male voters.

In the last election, when BJP got 3.5 crore votes, it had 312 seats out of 403.

Now suppose if any one party gets half of the 6.5 crore female votes, then it will easily win the election. And perhaps, this is the reason why the trend of giving tickets to women in Uttar Pradesh is changing rapidly. For the first time in the 2017 UP elections, 38 women candidates had won, out of which, two women MLAs won from Congress.

Although Priyanka Gandhi hopes that this tally will improve this time. Apart from this, Priyanka Gandhi has not ruled out the possibilities of contesting the UP elections.

Priyanka Gandhi has been considered the heir to Indira Gandhi's legacy in the Congress from the beginning. But she has never been able to prove herself with good marks in the exam of elections. That is, her debut happened on the identity of Indira Gandhi in politics, but she could not score runs for the Congress party on the election pitch. But the Congress party launches her in different ways in every election. It's just like a film flops after its release, but after some time, it is released again.

The biggest challenge in front of Priyanka Gandhi this time is that the organization of the Congress party is going through its worst phase. In the central organization, big leaders are revolting against the Gandhi family, while at the state level, the party does not have an army of strong leaders and workers. Priyanka Gandhi is working hard, which is a good thing, but she also knows that no election war can be won without army.