Congress has not ruled Uttar Pradesh for over 40 years now. Narayan Dutt Tiwari was the last Chief Minister for the party, and his term concluded on December 5, 1989.
The national party won 7 out of 403 seats in the last election in 2017.
To turn around the party’s fortunes is not an easy task by any means. There is no visible anti-incumbency wave in the state either. Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu Monk, does not face allegations of corruption.
BJP campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi even declared that the state is finally witnessing development after years of neglect by other parties.
Moreover, even in the possible case of anti-incumbency, there is a strong opposition led by Samajwadi Party, which is likely to benefit from it.
Then came Priyanka Gandhi.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
Priyanka Gandhi took on the daunting task of opposing a powerful Modi-led campaign. Theoretically speaking, with only seven seats to lose and 400 to gain, one could say that she is not under much pressure to win Uttar Pradesh for Congress.
Yet, Priyanka Gandhi left no stone unturned and stamped her mark on the Congress party’s campaign in UP Assembly elections 2022.
Perhaps what will stand out is how the party issued tickets in this election. The NDA and Samajwadi have given over 40 tickets each to women candidates, making their allocation roughly equal to ten percent of total candidates. On the other hand, Congress has issued at least three times more tickets, with a stated goal of fielding around 40 percent women.
What will cheer the Congress is that she was able to draw huge crowds at her rallies.
She highlighted the farmers’ protests and the law and order situation in India’s most populous state. She specifically targeted issues such as the BJP government’s handling the Hathras rape case in 2020, which was anything but efficient.
Asked by a reporter about a rival party’s accusations that she is linked to terrorists, she retorted, ‘Yes, my grandmother and father were killed by terrorists, and so yes, I do relate to acts of terror.’
Banking on sympathy from the youth, she tried to focus on job creation and accused the rival parties of dividing the society based on caste and religion.
Whether she’ll pull off a surprise against all the odds or not, she is likely to have a prominent role in future campaigning for the party.