In July last year, the Congress made an announcement that Priyanka Gandhi would shift base to Lucknow after being asked to vacate a government house in Delhi. The Uttar Pradesh Congress declared that she would shift to Sheila Kaul’s house in Lucknow and the same was renovated. But, she never came.
In fact, senior Congress leaders say that Priyanka last came to Lucknow in December 2019. In between, she visited UP four times — once in February last year to meet activists injured in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Azamgarh and then in October to meet the family of a Dalit woman who was allegedly gang-raped and murdered in Hathras. She attended kisan panchayats in western UP in the wake of the recent farm laws and a training camp in Rae Bareli in January last year. Otherwise, she remained in Delhi and controlled UP through Twitter, though she is incharge of UP besides being the national general secretary of the party. Her insouciant approach and a vertical division between the new and old has pushed this oldest political outfit almost into non-existence in UP in the vote bank politics – this despite Congress being the front runner in staging protests against the state government.
The poor performance of the Congress in recent panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh is testimony to the eroding popularity of Priyanka in particular and Congress in general. After the party performed badly in both the bypolls in October 2019 and in November 2020, the writing was on the walls that the electorate had rejected Priyanka’s Twitter politics from New Delhi but she refused to wake up and smell the coffee.
Ironically, since taking over from her brother Rahul Gandhi, who first led the party to the new low of just 7 seats in 2017 Assembly elections and later losing his own parliament seat in Amethi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka attended a three-day training camp of newly-elected district and city presidents held in Rae Bareli in January 2020. It kindled a ray of hope that she was building the party. But the hopes dashed as in one year, no attempt was made to hold such a meeting.
She even appointed Ajay Kumar Lallu the new state president and made a new team of office-bearers, removing all the veterans as if making them responsible for the poor shows of the party in the hustings. However, the seriousness of Priyanka to boost the prospect of the Uttar Pradesh Congress was exposed as since January 2020, she distanced herself from UP politics and started taking more interest in the national politics, especially when Rahul Gandhi quit as party president.
“There was a euphoria among party workers when news came that Priyanka will set up her base in Lucknow. There was belief that she will now lead the party from Lucknow. You would not believe that a separate office for her was also constructed in Nehru Bhawan (UPCC headquarters). But she never came and now party workers are feeling disappointed,” an old timer in the party said.
“The approach Priyanka has undertaken is baffling,” says another veteran leader. “She is in Delhi and has appointed some leaders with Communist bent of mind to manage the show in Lucknow. State Congress president’s role is confined to sitting on dharna or staging protests. Nobody is sparing a thought about party organization. The old timers who had an organizational skill were either sidelined or expelled from the party,” he said.
Congress leaders of all age and size are unanimous that party organization is in shatters. Priyanka needs to build the structure from booth to district and to state level brick by brick. “If you want to make Congress strong, bring the foot soldiers back. They will help her to win the war. Otherwise it is requiem for the party,” a veteran said.