Cong Workers in UP Want to See Priyanka Gandhi as Chief Ministerial Face For 2022 Assembly Poll

Lucknow: Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh have raised the demand that AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi be declared the party's face for Chief Minister ahead of the 2022 UP state assembly elections.

The demand sprung up at a key feedback meeting in Raebareli on Wednesday in the presence of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and other senior leaders.

Raebareli MP Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner for Congress leaders and workers on Wednesday evening.

The other key suggestion given by the Congress workers to the leadership was to swerve away from an alliance with any political party and even contest the 12 assembly bypolls seats with its full might. Priyanka Gandhi, however, refrained from commenting on the issue.

“All the Congress workers want Priyanka Ji to be the CM face when we contest the 2022 state assembly polls, I am sure Congress will bounce back if it is done,” senior Congress leader and former Congress MP from Varanasi, Rajesh Kumar Mishra said.

Other key suggestions and feedback given by the Congress workers during the meeting include careful vetting and early announcement of the names of candidates so that they get ample time to disseminate the party’s ideology to the public. Sources suggest that a weak organisational structure was also blamed for the poll debacle in 2019 general elections.

Focusing on the upcoming bypolls on the 12 assembly seats, Priyanka Gandhi had asked her party men to start ground level preparations. Sources suggest that Priyanka is close to finalising the names of leaders, who will be made in charge of the 12 assembly seats that are going for bypolls.

The local Congress leaders have also asked for the names of three other candidates.

Meanwhile, the party is also reflecting on the possible reasons behind chief Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in Amethi. A report citing the reasons was also submitted to Priyanka Gandhi. A two-member panel, led by Sonia Gandhi’s representative KL Sharma and AICC secretary Zubair Khan met Congress workers in the five assembly constituencies that make up the Amethi Lok Sabha seat to ascertain the reasons behind the shocking defeat.

The panel is said to have been informed of the “non-cooperation” by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party workers at the grassroots level. The SP and BSP, which had formed an alliance to fight the Lok Sabha polls, did not field any candidate in Amethi in a show of tacit support to the grand old party.