Priyanka Gandhi Vadra says the BJP would lose badly in Uttar Pradesh.
Congress's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today said the party will cut into BJP votes in Uttar Pradesh where its candidates are not strong enough for an outright victory. The BJP would "lose badly" in the state, said the leader, who entered active politics two months ago.
"It is clear that our candidates are putting up a tough fight. Where they are strong enough, they will win on their own. Where they carry less weight, we have fielded such candidates that they would eat into BJP votes," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said.
Kept out of the Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati alliance, the Congress is contesting most of the 80 seats in the politically crucial state, which sends the maximum number of lawmakers to the Lok Sabha - a strategy that had raised questions on whether it would split the non-BJP votes and end up playing into the hands of the BJP.
To questions on the mater, leaders of the Mayawati Akhilesh Yadav combine had said they were expecting the contrary. The Congress, they said, shared the upper caste votebank with the BJP and it is far more likely that these votes would get split between the two parties.
Priyanka Gandhi, who drew much criticism for her no-show in Varanasi for a contest with Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite a big build-up, said had she contested from Varanasi, she would have been a captive to the constituency. But there is much more to do across eastern Uttar Pradesh.
"See there is a lot of work... Had I contested from Varanasi I would have been confined just to that one constituency. Every candidate wants me to go campaign for them. I cannot disappoint them," she said.