Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's hopes to revive her party's electoral fortunes in Uttar Pradesh were shattered after the grand old party recorded its lowest tally in the state Assembly polls with almost all of its candidates losing their security deposits.
Congress, which had contested from 402 seats in the state, could manage to win only two seats and was wiped out from its traditional strongholds of Raebareli and Amethi. The two seats which the party won were Rampur Khas and Pharenda.
State Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu, a two-time MLA, not only lost from Tamkuhi Raj but was also relegated to the third spot behind the Samajwadi Party. Other senior party leaders, including Ajay Rai, Akhilesh Pratap Singh and Rajesh Mishra, also lost their respective seats.
Congress had won 25 seats in 2012 Assembly polls. Its tally came down to seven in the 2017 polls though it had then contested the elections in alliance with the SP. The vote percentage of the party which stood at 6.25 in the 2017 polls, declined to just over 2% in this election.
Priyanka, who was also the state party in charge had managed to create ripples in the political circles in UP ahead of the forthcoming polls in the state through her women outreach events and promises of sops for women leading many to believe that she could indeed revive the electoral fortunes of her party though some party leaders had expressed doubts if it would fetch enough votes for the Congress to make its presence felt in the electoral arena in the state.
Some state Congress leaders, who preferred anonymity, blamed Priyanka's women card for the crushing defeat of the party in the polls.
"The decision to field 40% women meant that the party was forced to give tickets to the women who had no experience in politics and also none knew them...such candidates were never expected to put up a fight least of all winning their seats," remarked a senior leader while speaking to DH.
Many of the women candidates, including Unnao rape survivor's mother Asha Singh, ASHA worker Poonam Pandey, anti-CAA activist Sadaf Jafar, journalist Nida Ahmed and model Archana Gautam, failed to put up a decent fight against their rivals and lost their security deposits.
Priyanka had held a series of events to reach out to the women in the run-up to the polls and also addressed a few rallies in the BJP bastions of Varanasi, Gorakhpur and other places.
She had also visited the families of the deceased farmers after four farmers were killed in Lakhimpur Kheri violence and even spent a night in police custody while on the way there.
The 'women's marathons' organised by her party in different parts of the state also drew large crowds of girls and women and even her detractors were surprised by the impressive turnout.
In fact, the women's marathon at Bareilly witnessed a stampede like situation as a large number of women turned up to take part in the event.
Priyanka had promised to increase the wages of the Anganwadi and Asha workers to Rs 10,000 and three free gas cylinders in a year besides setting up 75 skill schools in the names of women icons of the state.
The results would certainly put a question mark on Priyanka's ability to lead the party in the state and was also likely to trigger revolt within the party.
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