UP Election 2022: Congress to contest alone, declares Priyanka Gandhi

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has announced that party tickets will only be given to Congress workers on all assembly seats.

The Congress will go alone in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections which are scheduled to be held early next year. In a significant statement, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has announced that party tickets will only be given to Congress workers on all assembly seats. She went on to assert that the party will get to power in the 2022 assembly elections on its own. 

Priyanka made the announcement while addressing the party’s 'Pratigya Sammelan-Lakshya 2022' in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr. To recall, in the 2017 elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress party had joined hands with the Samajwadi Party against the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, the BJP went on to sweep the elections. However, on Sunday, Priyanka targeted both SP and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. 

Reaching out to cadres, Priyanka said that Congress had been waging a lonely battle against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. She claimed that only Congress workers -- and not SP or BSP workers --  who came to the people's rescue during the Coronavirus pandemic or any other major issues.

Claiming that the party laid special emphasis on the person standing at the end of the line and framed its policies accordingly, the 49-year-old Congress leader mocked the BJP for setting a target of winning over 300 seats in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly. The Congress managed to win just seven seats in the 2017 elections.

Last month, Samajwadi Party, which currently is the main opposition in the state, too has hinted at not tying up with Congress. Taking a jibe at the Congress, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said that he had a bitter experience when it came to allying with bigger parties. Instead, he said, the party would now look to joining hands with smaller parties for the next election. 

Earlier, the Congress party also promised to give tickets to 40 per cent of the tickets to women, which Priyanka had termed as aimed at making women, who roughly constitute half the vote bank in the state, a full-fledged partner in power.