It seems that except the Congress party and its cheerleaders no one else is taking Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry into the politics, seriously. Although many political leaders have appreciated the Congress’ decision to appoint Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the general secretary for eastern UP, it was done only as a courtesy and it is highly unlikely that such gestures would impact their decision-making process and their thinking towards the Congress in any way.
According to a My Nation report, on Sunday, the Samajwadi Party chief apparently put an end to the speculation that after Priyanka’s entry, the SP-BSP might intend to accommodate the Congress in their grand-alliance against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav said, “The alliance between the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party is not just an alliance of parties, but an alliance of people. And we have trust in that alliance succeeding.” He also said that if the Congress party is actually serious about defeating the saffron party then it should support the SP-BSP pre-poll alliance in the state. So, basically, the SP chief indicated that he is not willing to include the INC in the SP-BSP grand-alliance even after Priyanka Vadra’s induction into the party. But Lutyens’ media and the intellectuals are still enthusiastically trying to convince the world that Priyanka is an important and deciding factor which cannot be ignored. However, forget the BJP even Akhilesh doesn’t think so.
Earlier, Akhilesh Yadav on Priyanka Vadra’s appointment as general secretary of UP East had said, “Young people are being given a chance to prove themselves and the Samajwadi Party is really happy about it. I would like to congratulate Congress and its president [Rahul Gandhi]. They took a right decision [of appointing Priyanka as Uttar Pradesh (East) general secretary].”
He also revealed why he divorced the Congress to marry with the BSP, Akhilesh told PTI that he did so because “I decided to correct my poll arithmetic and did it through this alliance.” He also questioned, “In order to correct the arithmetic of UP and defeat BJP it (SP-BSP alliance) has been done. Should we lose seats (to BJP) just to pacify others.” Akhilesh also spoke his mind on the humiliating defeat of SP-Congress alliance in the 2017 UP state assembly elections. He said, “This defeat again was because of incorrect election arithmetic.”
It seems that the SP chief and the former UP CM has not forgotten the fate that he suffered by aligning with the Gandhi scion and he doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake again ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It looks like that he has made up his mind that SP-BSP will contest the elections together and by not allowing the Congress to have a slice of the action.
The Congress is considered as an insignificant player in UP and Priyanka’s entry won’t make any difference to its image in the state. After being left out of the alliance, the party has decided to contest on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats which will make it ‘bhai-behen’ versus ‘bua-bhatija’ battle.