Congress party in Uttar Pradesh has been facing an existential crisis for the last several decades. The party may have national leaders like Rajiv, Sonia and Rahul, but no state level leader who can take on local strongmen like Mulayam, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh all these years. Though Rahul Gandhi tried his hand in UP elections since 2012, he was never the CM candidate there.
For the last three to four years, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been camping and campaigning in UP and now she is looking after the electioneering for the state assembly. Interestingly, it is Priyanka who is calling shots in UP by deciding to allocate 40 per cent MLA tickets to women. In a media meet in Delhi on January 21 Priyanka indicated that she is the CM candidate of Congress in UP.
With this, the UP political picture is clear. There are four CM candidates so far – Yogi Adityanath for BJP while Ahiklesh Yadav will be from Samajwadi Party, followed by Mayawati of BSP and Priyanka of Congress. However, Mayawati is not contesting the elections this time and Priyanka too may not contest. So, both the women want to play their cards after the results on March 10.
