Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh took party circles by surprise when she unilaterally declared that 40 percent of tickets in the forthcoming Assembly elections would be given to women. Although, the announcement appears to be a progressive step in the right direction, yet it would have been better had the party thought through the ramifications of this decision before making it public. It is also inconsistent with what the Interim president, Sonia Gandhi had said at the Working Committee meeting last Saturday that the party leaders should directly communicate with her instead of conveying matters through the media. In this instance, it is possible that Priyanka may have discussed the issue at length with her mother and brother, Rahul but if any declaration had to be made, it should have been done by Sonia. How can a decision as crucial as this be specific to a single state. What about Punjab, Uttrakhand, Goa and other states going to polls along with Uttar Pradesh. Why should there not be ticket distribution at par with what the party has apparently decided. This is a policy matter and should have been debated at length in the Working Committee itself instead of leaving it to just one individual or the family.
It is also not known as yet whether to give shape to this concept of 40 percent tickets to women, would Priyanka be projected as the Chief Ministerial face of the party. If not, the entire exercise may prove to be futile. The impression which one gets by this lofty pronouncement is that the Congress would be contesting the UP polls on its own since other parties such as Samajwadi party and the Bahujan Samaj Party may have their own opinion on this important matter and may not necessarily concur with Priyanka’s views. In the past, the SP like so many other regional parties have opposed giving such a large proportion of seats to women without studying the fallout at the grass roots level. The BSP has provided a woman chief minister in Mayawati, who had a very successful tenure, but has yet to take a call on reservations for women in Assembly polls.
In fact, before Mayawati, Sucheta Kripalani had served as a Congress UP CM in the early 1960s. The reason why the views of the SP and BSP are important is because if the Congress has to enter into any kind of alliance, there should be some agreement on issues. There is no doubt that Priyanka has been active in the state and has tried to infuse life into the party cadres, even though the number has dwindled over the years. The Congress on its own steam is not capable of being in the fight in more than 30 to 40 seats at present, so it is a difficult task ahead for the party general secretary. There are some who believe that the Priyanka show so far is only for optics and is helping in diluting the challenge from both Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati. In any case, every party has a right to evolve its own strategy and this is true for the Congress as well. However, what is going to be difficult is on how the Congress would explain this UP specific decision to other states. Parties opposed to the Congress shall certainly make this an issue in the polls. The Congress can always claim that Indira Gandhi, the only woman Prime Minister of the country was from the party as so many Chief Ministers of several states. To carry the Priyanka thesis forward, a lot of spadework would have to be done, for which there is hardly any time left. The Congress has to hit the ground running in the forthcoming polls.