UP Congress ridicules party’s ‘women against criminals’ idea

The decision of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh to field “strong” women candidates in constituencies where criminals and musclemen are fielded by Opposition parties, has invited more ridicule than appreciation in party ranks. Uttar Pradesh Congress president Nirmal Khatri said at a meeting of the Mahila Congress — in which political strategist Prashant Kishor was also present — that the party would identify such constituencies and field strong women candidates.

He was responding to the demand of the Mahila Congress that women were not being adequately represented in elections.

He also asked the frontal units to identify such seats in the state.

Mr Khatri explained that by fielding a woman candidate in such constituencies, the party could muster the support of women, cutting across political and caste lines, because women tend to dislike candidates with criminal antecedents.

Mr Kishor, meanwhile, was more guarded and cautious in his speech. “You will have to prepare the organisation up to the booth level and strengthen it. I can only tell you the ways and means to go about in the elections but it is you who will have to contest and win,” he said.

However, on Saturday, a day after the meeting, there was much banter in the UPCC headquarters over this decision.

A middle-rung leader said, “As it is, we are having a tough time finding suitable candidates for all constituencies and now adhyaksh ji (UPCC president) wants women to take on criminal candidates. The party need to tune up its engines (leaders) before we go into elections — varna to band baj jayega.”

A senior party leader said that it would be foolish to field women candidates without taking merit into consideration.

“The Mahila Congress in UP, like other frontal organisations, has been mostly defunct. The women’s wing has not even launched an agitation on inflation or women’s security in the past few months. We should first galvanise the women’s wing and then get them to contest the elections if we are serious about the winnability factor,” the veteran leader said.

Another party functionary said that the members of the Mahila Morcha should first learn to move out into the field and do some serious work to earn their tickets. They should also shun their “selfie culture” and behave more responsibly, he advised.

Earlier, Mr Kishor told party workers that the work of dedicated workers will be evaluated and they will also be rewarded and things could be different from earlier times.

Leaders of the NSUI, Mahila Morcha, Seva Dal and the minorities department were told in separate sittings to prepare one person each for every booth for the polls.