Priyanka in the Congress poll gambit
The biggest political news in India on January 23 was the formal induction of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in politics and her appointment in the key post of general secretary of the main opposition Congress Party just about three months ahead of parliamentary elections in the main battleground state of Uttar Pradesh. She thus becomes the latest member of the Nehru-Gandhi clan—11th to be precise since Priyanka's great grandfather Motilal Nehru became the Congress President a century ago—to make way into politics.
But curiously, the press release issued by the party buried the announcement of her appointment in the third paragraph as part of a reshuffle of office-bearers Congress President Rahul Gandhi unveiled in the run up to the polls. Why? Did the Congress try to pass off Priyanka's appointment as just another routine organisational exercise? It is surely not. Or was the party reticent in mentioning her name in the opening paragraph thinking it might give critics another chance to accuse it of promoting "parivaarvad" (family rule)? Then again, the question is: why should Congress be defensive? Dynasty is no longer a dirty or cuss word in Indian politics. Many parties other than the Congress have family lineage in their rank and file and the Bharatiya Janata Party is not excluded from the list. After all, the Congress has won several elections notwithstanding critics' attacks on the issues of dynastic rule and the foreign origin of Rahul-Priyanka's mother Sonia Gandhi. To harp on those issues may be akin to flogging a dead horse.
Whatever be the reasoning behind the mention of Priyanka in the third paragraph, the one view that is undisputed is that her appointment as the party general secretary only formalises her role in the Congress affairs and brings herself out of the Congress' strategy and decision-making backroom, where she has been close to two decades, and positions her in an important space on the front stage. It also may have done the spadework for the future of the Congress top leadership—that it cannot go outside what has been the party's first family since long. Congress circles view Priyanka as a trump card and fulfilment of the slogan "Priyanka lao Congress bachao" (bring Priyanka save Congress) that has been carefully orchestrated in the party for long.
As general secretary, Priyanka will be in charge of the party's affairs in the economically-impoverished eastern region of Uttar Pradesh that is significant for three primary political reasons: i) it covers half of the state's total of 80 parliamentary constituencies including those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and saffron-robed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the two most prominent mascots of the BJP's Hindutva plank, besides a dozen of Modi's ministerial colleagues; ii) it has a sizable presence of upper castes and Muslims which the Congress hopes to win back from the BJP and Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party; and iii) it allows Priyanka to continue to nurse the constituencies Amethi and Rae Bareli of her brother Rahul and mother Sonia Gandhi respectively, a job she has been doing since 1999.
This is the first time Priyanka will occupy an organisational position and consequently the challenges facing her becomes much tougher than the previous one that saw her being confined to be the Congress' rock-star campaigner in Amethi and Rae Bareli. Being the general secretary gives her a much bigger space in the party set-up and an expansive theatre of activities in a state where caste equations and religion have traditionally played a key role in shaping the results of successive parliamentary and assembly elections.
Among the daunting tasks Priyanka faces is to change the political arithmetic in Uttar Pradesh and act as not only a crowd-puller, which she in any case is, but also help them translate them into votes so desperately needed for the Congress if it wants to regain power in India after stumbling to its worst defeat (just 44 seats) in parliamentary elections five years ago. Many in the party believe that Priyanka's striking resemblance to her grandmother Indira Gandhi makes her a natural crowd-puller and revive the Nehru-Gandhi family's appeal of yesteryears. What complicates the task for Priyanka is that her party has been steadily on the decline in Uttar Pradesh over the years—a steep fall from once being a natural party of governance to join the bandwagon of "also ran" in the electoral race. The Congress has increasingly found its vote banks shrinking in the face of the growing clouts of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party and the BJP on the back of caste and religious identity politics since late 1980s. Secondly, the Congress organisational structure in the state is in a shambles.
However, Rahul Gandhi, by appointing his sibling as general secretary in eastern Uttar Pradesh, has made his intention firm and clear: that he is not going to throw down the towel easily in the state, especially after being squeezed out of the recent electoral alliance forged by the SP and the BSP. In fact, making Priyanka an office-bearer in the state is a powerful message sent by the Congress President to BSP supremo Mayawati who has been sceptical of the Congress' ability to transfer votes to its allies in the event of a poll pact and seat-sharing. By having Priyanka as the general secretary in charge of eastern part of the state and another promising young Turk Jyotiraditya Scindia heading the party's organisation in western part of Uttar Pradesh, the Congress leaves none in doubt about its eagerness to attract the sizable youthful voters.
The debate will go on in political circles if drafting Priyanka into the party set-up as general secretary was justified by her track record so far. True, she did successfully helm the party's campaign in 1999 to regain the Rae Bareli constituency, won by her relative Arun Nehru during the polls in 1998, for Sonia. But on the other hand, Priyanka's reported key role in firming up an alliance between the Congress and the SP for the 2017 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh failed to bring the desired results for her party.
The Congress may look at Priyanka as the inheritor of Indira Gandhi. No doubt, the Nehru-Gandhi family has been the anchor of the factional feud-riven Congress Party. The question is: whether the party's first family has ensured a consistent success rate in elections for the party. Besides, the party must also wake up to the reality that politics in India has undergone substantial changes since the days of the late prime minister. With the major demographic change bringing in a whole new set of young and aspirational voters, not many are beholden to the Nehru-Gandhi family or its charisma any more. Given that, the two main yardsticks of Priyanka's success will be how much the Congress can eat into the vote bases of its rivals in Uttar Pradesh. That is what matters at the end of the day.
Pallab Bhattacharya is a special correspondent for The Daily Star.
Comments