Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The depleting base of Congress party in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh owing to a series of desertions by prominent party leaders has not only left the cadre depressed and disillusioned but senior leaders are also conspicuous by their absence from the active campaign scene at ground zero at a time when the poll pitch is peaking in the Hindi heartland.
Leaders like former UPCC chief Raj Babbar, former Rajya Sabha member of Congress and the party’s nine-time MLA from Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh Pramod Tiwari and the party’s senior SC face PL Punia, all have been missing from the party campaign for the Assembly polls on the ground.
On the contrary, the party is importing leaders from other states like Sachin Pilot from Rajasthan and Bhupesh Baghel from Chhattisgarh to take command of its campaign in UP. Baghel was recently seen conducting a door-to-door campaign in Mathura, Noida and other places in western UP.
“The absence of senior leaders from the poll arena is adding to the gloom and disillusionment which are creeping into the party rank and file. People are finding it to be an effort in vain to campaign for the party which is unable to keep its flock intact and popular faces are making an exit every now and then,” says a senior Congress leader seeking anonymity.
Raj Babbar was the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president in the 2017 assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. If political circles are to be believed, Babbar is planning to do an Imran Masood soon. Masood had left the Congress to join the Samajwadi Party last month.
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The Congress has remained out of power in UP since 1989. Masood is not the only one but scores of its prominent faces including former UPCC presidents Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Jagdambika Pal, former Union ministers Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh and a number of others in the state have left the party over the years.
Even AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandh Vadra’s plunge into active politics has failed to arrest the desertions. The more recent desertions include Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, 37, former Congress MLA from Mirzapur, believed to be close to Priyanka and scion of Congress loyalist Kamla Pati Tripathi clan, who left the party to join the Trinamool Congress, last year.
Similarly, while the Congress had won seven assembly seats in 2017, four of the seven MLAs have left the party. While Aditi Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Naresh Saini have joined the saffron brigade, Masood Akhtar has joined the SP. The party is now left with Lallu Kumar, the current UPCC chief, Sohil Akhtar Ansari (Kanpur-Cantt) and Aradhana Mishra from Rampur Khas.
Moreover, many prominent faces left the party even after being declared candidates like Supriya Aron, former Bareilly Mayor, who joined the SP after being declared Congress candidate from Bareilly Cantt. Even Haider Ali Khan from Suar in Rampur and Masood Akhtar from Saharanpur left the party for Apna Dal (S) and SP, respectively, after getting a ticket from the Congress.
Thus the party has been left with only a countable number of identifiable faces of mass appeal who could be used for campaigning in the state. In such a scenario, the likes of Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia and Nirmal Khatri have relegated themselves only to different party programmes and meetings at theUPCC headquarters in Lucknow.
The common refrain in the party circles in Lucknow is that the party needs to do much more to register its presence at the grass roots level.
“It is high time for Priyanka to give bigger roles to local prominent leaders to invigorate them instead of importing leaders from other Congress ruled states,” says Prof AK Mishra, a Lucknow based political scientist.
The UP Congress has so far taken out Pratigya Yatras, launched “Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon” (I am a girl, I can fight) campaigns, released women and youth manifestos. The party’s door-to-door campaigns at the grassroots are yet to pick up momentum apparently due to lack of manpower.
The Congress contested on 114 of 403 seats in the 2017 assembly elections in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. It won only seven seats, securing 6.25% of the total votes. In 2012, it had won 28 out of the 355 seats contested, securing 11.65% of the total votes.
