With Uttar Pradesh going to Assembly polls in 2017, talk of former chief minister Sheila Diskhit’s appointment as the state Congress chief has begun in the party circles following Congress vice-presid
With Uttar Pradesh going to Assembly polls in 2017, talk of former chief minister Sheila Diskhit’s appointment as the state Congress chief has begun in the party circles following Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi involved Mr Prashant Kishor to make the party relevant in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
Ms Dikshit, one of the regional heavyweights of the party, had won Lok Sabha election from Kannauj and became the Union minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government.
If the party insiders are to be believed, Ms Dishit is also willing to accept this responsibility and revive the party in the electoral battle ahead against the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the BJP.
They said Mr Prashant Kishor, the political strategist and policy advisor, suggested Priyanka Gandhi to be projected as the party’s “face” in Uttar Pradesh but others, including members of the Team Rahul, are opposing it on account of number of reasons, including emergence of two power centres in the party.
The Congress had played all cards by making the UP Congress chief from Brahmin, Thakur, Bania, Muslim communities and a women as well but that did not help in elections. And in 2014, it got only two seats from UP.
While the BJP has identified itself with the Hindutva hardline, the BSP chief Mayawati emerged as a strong CM against goondaraj and the Samajwadi Party came to power due to Muslim-Yadav combination but the Sonia Gandhi led party has not been able to sell its development agenda nor could attract youth and floating voters since 1989.
The Congress is finding it difficult to make a dent in the dalit votebank of Ms Mayawati and win back minorities and upper castes after the Mandir and Mandal agitations. Mr Gandhi, who led the party’s electoral battle from the front in the last UP Assembly polls, had failed to impress youth.
