CONGRESS LOOKING FOR A NEW POLITICAL SPACE IN UP

The much-touted UP elections have tendered political parties to make instant changes with their strategies and called for stronger manifestos to compete with the parallel political parties, in order to attract the voters of different interests. Prior to the high-octane electoral battle starting next month, the Congress party on Friday released its manifesto for UP elections targetting “women and youth”, an effort to carve a new political space amongst the two dominant parties, BJP and SP, in the state.

“The vision that was committed by the BJP has failed now. If you look at India and want to propose a new vision to India, you have to start in Uttar Pradesh, every state is important but Uttar Pradesh carries weight like no other state occupies. So we are proposing a new way of doing things for Uttar Pradesh,” Rahul Gandhi said in a joint press conference with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The manifesto, Rahul said, “is not hollow words but we have a strategy to implement what has been drafted after consulting youth whose views are reflected in the manifesto.”

In her remarks, party leader Priyanka said that the party is focusing on development and not on caste-based propaganda politics. This comes amidst the caste-based formation of the two big political parties (BJP and SP), who are the main claimants of the UP’s political win.

To be more clear, SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav adequately ventured to woo Dalit voters in recent times and his latest gain has been Swami Prasad Maurya, who was poached by him in the heat of elections. BJP responded to that by inducting Akhilesh’s sister-in-law in an attempt to gain the votes from the Yadav community.

A Congress functionary who handles the digital marketing campaign for the party in UP said that the party is getting huge responses from people as compared to recent elections. He added, “Priyanka is creating an appeal among women which will change the electoral dynamics of the state politics, we are expecting around 40 seats this time, we will be the kingmakers in UP.”