Bigger Campaign Role For Priyanka Gandhi After 2 State Wins For Congress

After back-to-back Congress victories in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is set to play an important role in the party's campaigns in elections later this year, particularly in Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.

Priyanka Gandhi has already held a rally in Telangana and she is expected to address one in Madhya Pradesh on June 12, where she is likely to amplify the party's promise of income guarantee of Rs 1,500 to women, sources told NDTV. She is also likely to campaign extensively in Chhattisgarh, sources said.

Mahila samvaad (women forums), an idea she floated and implemented in the party's campaign centred around women in the Uttar Pradesh election last year was also part of the Congress's campaign in the recent Karnataka polls. It will be an integral part of the Congress's upcoming poll campaigns, as will be the promise of income support for women, free cylinders, and free public transport. These are also among the Congress's five guarantees in Karnataka, which are believed to have contributed significantly to the party's historic victory, winning 135 of 224 seats. In all four states where elections are due this year - Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh - the party is expected to announce schemes exclusively for women.

"A separate focus on women voters has entered the Congress's thinking now, after UP. Because the leadership has understood that women want solutions to price rise. The other very important thing that Priyankaji has been pushing for is increasing the number of women candidates. She is pushing for this even though her own party leaders reject the idea outright," a party leader close to Priyanka Gandhi said.

While there is no denying that the Karnataka results have raised Congress's hopes, giving it a fighting chance against the BJP in the upcoming assembly polls and also in 2024, Priyanka Gandhi's intervention in Karnataka, according to sources, was particularly critical as the campaign had hit a roadblock of sorts after Rahul Gandhi's disqualification following his conviction in a defamation case.

Congress leaders said Priyanka Gandhi gave the biggest push to the party's campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where it won 40 seats, reducing the BJP from 44 to 25 seats. It roped in leaders such as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla. While the Gandhi family has historical and family linkages with Karnataka and Telangana, with Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi having contested and won from Bellary and the former also contesting from Medak, it was Himachal Pradesh that Priyanka Gandhi felt most emotionally connected to.

"She spoke many times about how Indiraji had spoken to family members that she wanted to spend the last few days of her life in Himachal Pradesh, which is why Rajivji scattered her ashes in the hills. It was she who pushed for the Old Pension Scheme for government employees and gas cylinders at Rs 500," a Congress functionary said.

More than Priyanka Gandhi's organisational abilities, it is her campaigning style and focus on winning that set her apart in Karnataka. In the roadshows in Mysuru and central Karnataka, she was seen mobilising people to shout slogans in support of the Congress. According to Congress, she had a strike rate of 72 per cent in the 36 rallies and roadshows she participated in, particularly covering almost all seats of Mandya, where the party won despite the region being a Janata Dal (Secular) stronghold.

While Rahul Gandhi focused on propagating the message of the Congress guarantees, Priyanka Gandhi worked on creating the environment for the party to win, leaders said. It was Priyanka Gandhi who took it upon herself to respond to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aggressive campaign so that the election did not become a Rahul Gandhi versus Modi fight. She also responded when Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's "snake" comment against the Prime Minister sparked a row. She reportedly also had a quick assessment done on the impact of the Bajrang Dal- Bajrangbali issue on people, and stayed away from commenting on it.

"Wherever in Karnataka she went, she didn't want to hear any Priyanka Gandhi ki Jai..she insisted the chants were all about the Congress, and they should be loud. Till the last day, she was filling josh (enthusiasm) in people, and giving them the confidence to believe that they could be winning," another functionary said.

Style of Politics

Follow-ups are probably the most important part of Priyanka Gandhi's approach to electoral politics. Be it a sapera or snake charmers' colony in Delhi or the women priests she formed a bond with in UP, she has insisted on maintaining contact with them. The party failed to make a mark in Uttar Pradesh despite efforts, but functionaries said Priyanka Gandhi is studying the social groups, including Brahmins, Dalits and Muslims, which have moved away from the Congress in recent years, and is looking at ways to win them back.

Her instructions for her team, when it came to campaigning in Karnataka, were clear - no massive rallies for her.

"Woh door se baat nahin karti (She doesn't like addressing people from a distance). She doesn't like to be restricted and she is at her best when left amidst women," one of the leaders closely associated with her said.

Priyanka Gandhi is directly in touch not just with family members of soldiers killed in the line of duty in Pulwama or rape victims in Hathras, Unnao, and Bundelkhand, but also those whom her political opponents have tried to use against her.

"At a public meeting in Mathura, local BJP workers brought a rape victim from Rajasthan to Priyankaji's rally to show the state of governance in the Congress-ruled state, but she took her to the banks of the Yamuna, spoke to her like a mother, and enrolled her into college. They are in regular touch even now," the functionary quoted above said.

"She stresses on zameenipan (ground connect), which is why she is comfortable among the masses. The many people she meets and forms a bond with, she keeps in touch with personally, and the ones she helps, she keeps following up if they need anything else," he added.

Telangana challenge next?

In Telangana, where the Congress is struggling to hold its ground with desertions and infighting, and with an aggressive BJP taking on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Priyanka Gandhi has her task cut out. Sources say her brother Rahul Gandhi has specifically asked her to visit the state as often as possible and strengthen the organisation and its campaign. She addressed her first rally in Hyderabad within hours of the Karnataka campaign wrap.

"She has always been up for challenges, and Telangana, she feels, is a state the party can turn around if all state leaders cooperate. In Karnataka, we had a bouquet of strong state leaders. We already have Revanth Reddy, we need more to assure people," a senior Congress leader said.