Congress general secretary and party in-charge east UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, predicted on Wednesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party would perform poorly in Uttar Pradesh due to the strong fight put up by Congress candidates.
“The BJP will suffer a major setback in UP and lose badly in those seats where Congress is strong and our candidates are giving a tough fight,” Priyanka said during a poll meeting in Baghola area of Rae Bareli.
However, the Congress leader also admitted that in places where the Congress candidates were weak, they would only dent the vote bank of the BJP thereby paving the way for victory of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance candidates.
Priyanka, who is campaigning in her mother Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli and brother Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi constituencies for the last two days, met voters and party workers in Baghola area on Wednesday.
“The Congress is not at all cutting into the votes of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in UP. We have fielded either winnable candidates or those having the potential to damage the BJP’s chances in Uttar Pradesh,” Priyanka explained.
“We have carefully chosen candidates so that either Congress wins or they cut into BJP’s votes. The Congress is not at all cutting into votes of the SP-BSP alliance,” added Priyanka while talking to the media during her campaign trail in Amethi.
The Congress leader also hit out at the BJP for what she called its ‘obsession’ with the Gandhi family and for not caring to o focus on solving people’s problems.
Asked whether Rahul Gandhi could become the next prime minister, Priyanka said, “My brother will prove to be a good prime minister as he listens to the people and tries to solve their problems. But it is the public who has to decide whether he will become the PM or not.”
Political observers feel that the anti-BJP vote could get split between the Congress and the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, benefiting the BJP.
“People are harassed. This present government has lost trust of the people, who voted them to power with a lot of expectations. You have to understand their niyat (intention) and neeti (policy). Nothing has been done to solve the menace of stray cattle and gaushalas are yet to be set up,” she said.
Priyanka attacked Union Textiles Minister and BJP candidate from Amethi, Smriti Irani, saying, “By distributing shoes, she insulted the people of Amethi. They charge us of parivarwaad (dynastic politics), but here in Amethi and in Rae Bareli, it is people’s love which our family has been showered with for years.”
Asked whether she was afraid of contesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, the Congress leader said that she was not scared at all and she had joined politics with good intentions.
“If Priyanka Gandhi gets scared, she will sit at home and not engage in politics. I am in politics with good intentions and I will be there,” she asserted.
Besides, she said, if she had contested from Varanasi, she would have been confined to only one constituency.
“I am not dejected that I am not contesting from Varanasi. I wanted to campaign and strengthen Congress in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Had I contested from Varanasi I would have got confined to Varanasi alone and would not have been able to work for strengthening the party,” she said.
“There is a lot of work to do in eastern Uttar Pradesh and we have to defeat the BJP in UP and strengthen the Congress,” she said.
The Congress fielded Ajay Rai from Varanasi, ending weeks of speculations that the constituency may witness a blockbuster contest between Modi and Priyanka.