She makes a splash but can she rise above “The Siblings” tag?

First, let me put it out there that as long as the Gandhis are referred to as “the siblings” they cannot be taken seriously in the political pit that is Uttar Pradesh. There’s just something about the word that reduces them to nothings. Off course they cannot be blamed for a word being used by others, but for a SERIOUS POLITICAL PROJECT, this point needs to be flagged.

Second, Priyanka has in the past few weeks made every effort to emerge above the sibling tag as a serious player in Uttar Pradesh. She’s made a splash in the UP mud with her high-profile arrest and/or detention while travelling to Lakhimpur Kheri after the mowing down of farmers. And she has consistently stayed on the ground with another telegenic encounter with cops while travelling to Agra to visit the family of a man who died in police custody. She posed for selfies with some of the men in uniform, who are apparently now being ‘punished’ for preening next to a famous person!  

She came through as charming in the face of a cussed government. It’s good for her that the UP regime, by design or ham-handedness, are now treating her as a “law and order problem”. It elevates her standing in Uttar Pradesh where the SP, led by Akhilesh Yadav is seen as the main opposition force that will fight the Adityanath Yogi led BJP regime. In the weeks that Priyanka made the high-profile news, there were low key defections from various parties to the SP even as a deal was made with the strategically important caste add on, the SBSP led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, a former BJP ally. 

But the one Priyanka pronouncement that really packed some punch was the decision to give 40 percent of Congress tickets to women. It’s the kind of announcement that may not sweep Uttar Pradesh immediately but has larger implications. It sets off a process where the issue of women candidates does become relevant.  So, kudos to Priyanka for that and all right-minded people must support any initiative to give women greater political representation. 

Indeed, ideas have wings and in 2021 let’s credit Mamata Banerjee with making a display of women power. In the 2019 general election, the TMC did give 40 per cent tickets to women, throwing up talent such as first time MP Mahua Moitra, although the BJP also won an astounding 18 of the 42 seats in the state with TMC getting 22. 

In the assembly election in March-April this year however the TMC brought the percentage of women down, yet put up 50 women candidates (the state assembly has a strength of 294).  Political observers would know that the TMC campaign proved that statistically there is a women’s constituency. According to data of the Lokniti-CSDS poll, women voted in greater numbers than men for the TMC. Forty-six per cent of male voters chose TMC, six percentage points more than that for the BJP. Around 50 per cent women voted TMC, a 13 percentage point lead over the BJP.  

Certainly, Priyanka’s situation cannot be compared to that of Mamata Banerjee or Didi, who was in power and had schemes that targeted women. Yet, Priyanka must imbibe an important lesson from the career of Didi. She must stay and fight on the ground. She has reportedly found a house in Lucknow, but if she seriously wants to make a fight of it in the upcoming UP elections, she cannot make mere visits to the state. 

Like the Lady from Bengal, she must contest from a tough seat in the state and give a good fight there. Why not against chief minister Adityanath Yogi? For before becoming the chief minister of Bengal, Mamata fought many losing battles, till she won and then won again. Best of luck to Priyanka for we do need many more women in politics.