Some hard talk as Priyanka Gandhi chairs meet to review Congress's UP debacle

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 15

Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Priyanja Gandhi Vadra is chairing a crucial meeting of the party's state leadership to take stock of the recent election setback in India's most populous state which sends the highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Vadra, who personally led the party's campaign in the state, has called all senior leaders of UP and state office bearers to discuss what went wrong and what should the road ahead look like.

At the meeting of the Congress Working Committee held on Sunday to discuss the Congress losses in five states, including UP, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab, Vadra had said the results were along expected lines because the party has no major organisational base in the state.

She had told the gathering that "we have to start somewhere and the road ahead can be long but we have to persist and persevere with commitment to pro people policies."

In UP, 97 per cent Congress candidates lost their deposits.

Vadra had designed the entire campaign with focus on women and given 40 pc seats to women candidates. This did not work.

Sources said one major reason for the party's loss was projection of non-political candidates who will not be in a position to slog in the field for the next five years.

"Had tickets been given to political people they would have had a stake. It remains to be seen if candidates who were fielded will be interested in strengthening the Congress for the next five years specially until 2024 Lok Sabha elections," said a UP Congress leader referring to Congress fielding candidates like Archana Gautam, who was Miss Bikini and bagged 1519, less than 0.66 per cent votes in Meeru's Hastinapur.

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