Priyanka Gandhi to 'float' Ganga, nationalism on campaign

Launching her Lok Sabha campaign on a boat on Monday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will raise Ganga and nationalism as her key poll pitches. The boat ride, which will start at Manaiya and culminate at Sitamarhi on Monday along the Ganga, will be the first day of Priyanka’s three-day campaign, which is scheduled to end at PM Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi. 

As per a schedule launched by the Congress party Sunday, Priyanka will start her boat ride from Manaiya at 9:30am where she will do a “boat pe charcha” with a delegation of students. From there, she will go to Dumduma at 11am, where she will have a public meeting. After that, she will land at the Sirsa ghat at noon to a reception and will visit a village. 

After the village, Priyanka will continue her boat ride to Lakshagraha, and then on to Manda ghats. The ride will end at Sitamarhi where she is scheduled to spend the night. 

Sources in the party said that the Namami Gange project will feature prominently on her campaign speech. The project, one of the poll planks of PM Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has been criticised for being incomplete on several counts. Those involved with Priyanka’s campaign said that 80% of the fund being unused will be a key feature of her speech. 

Priyanka is also scheduled to meet the family of martyrs of the Pulwama attack during her three-day campaign. “Nationalism and Ganga are some of the BJP’s key election clarions, and her endeavour will be to beat the BJP at their own game from their home turf,” said a party leader. 

“Of the 254 projects announced to clean the river, 75 projects have not been completed and while Rs 6,131 crore of the project outlay of Rs 24,672 crore was released, only Rs 4,994 crore has been released till now. These are some of the key facts. To add to it, lab tests have proved that bacterial contamination is now higher than 2014 levels,” said a party person, citing some of the key statistics that will be a sounding board for Priyanka. 

Priyanka was announced the general secretary of the party in January this year, given the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh East. Party workers from the UP unit said that while she will only be able to show effects in the 2022 assembly elections, she is doing what it takes at the moment. “This is just the first aid, the surgery will take place much later,” said a leader, explaining the situation of the party. With a barebone party structure in place, she has a lot of work to do to show results. 

Sources also said that the party will also try to field candidates to ensure that they do not cut away from the BSP-SP alliance votes. “In some seats, weak candidates will be put up to not disturb the alliance. Overall, the Congress will try not to affect the SP voterbase, as in the last few general elections elections, the Dalits voting for the party have risen,” said the leader. In the party’s fourth list of candidates, where names of seven candidates were announced late Saturday, not too many are winnable candidates. The party will concentrate on around 23-24 seats, including the 21 seats that it won in 2009. State leaders have also not ruled out a post-poll alliance. 

As soon as she took over, Priyanka has stitched alliances with small regional parties, and on Sunday Raj Babbar announced that they will leave seven seats for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. These seats include Mainpuri, Kannauj, Firozabad, RLD's Jayant and Ajit Singh’s seats as well as BSP supremo Mayawati’s seat. The party had on Saturday announced two seats to the Krishna Patel faction of the Apna Dal: Gonda and Pilibhit.