In July, last year the Congress indicated that its high-profile general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will shift her base to Lucknow after she was asked to vacate a Government house in Delhi. Uttar Pradesh Congress even claimed that she will shift to Sheila Kaul’s house in Lucknow and the same was renovated. But, she never came.
In fact, senior Congress leaders say 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 the Dalit woman gangraped and murdered in Hathras.
She attended Kisan Panchayats in Western UP in wake of recent farmers’ laws and a training camp in Rae Bareli in January 2020.
The rest of the time, she remained in Delhi and controlled UP through twitter. Her insouciant approach and a vertical division between the “new and old” has pushed this oldest political outfit into virtual 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 by-polls in October 2019 and in November 2020, the writing was clear on the walls that the electorate had rejected Priyanka’s tweeter politics from New Delhi.
Ironically, since taking the charge from her brother Rahul Gandhi, who first led the party to the new low of winning just 7 seats in 2017 Assembly elections and later losing his own Amethi Parliament seat in 2019 polls, Priyanka attended a three-day training camp of newly-elected district and city presidents held in Rae Bareli in January 2020.
This kindled a ray of hope that she is 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 as 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 quit as party president.
“There was euphoria among party workers when news came that Priyanka will set up her base in Lucknow. There was the 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,” said 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 protest. Nobody is sparing a thought about party organisation. The old-timers who had an organisational skill were either sidelined or expelled from the party,” he said.
Congress leaders of all ages agree that the party organisation 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 the Congress strong, bring the foot soldiers back. They will help her to win the war. Otherwise, it is a requiem for the party,” a veteran leader said.