Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did charm Uttar Pradesh

One of the most enduring images of the 2022 election in Uttar Pradesh is of BJP workers enthusiastically shaking hands with Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, taking selfies with her and asking her for copies of the Congress manifesto for youth and women. The smiling Congress general secretary obliged. The surreal picture of the Congress leader in the middle of a sea of BJP flags, caps, saffron scarves and kurtas stood out.

There were other images of her campaigning during a heavy downpour, jogging to the dais, embracing women and effortlessly swivelling out of the window of her SUV (the door couldn’t be opened because of the milling BJP supporters) and climb to the roof to accept their greetings. There was the time when her road show came face to face with a road show of Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary. A smiling Priyanka Gandhi waved at the two and wished them the best of luck.

She eclipsed all other star campaigners and as the campaign progressed, her speeches became more hard hitting and sharp. In sharp contrast to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and other BJP leaders, she did not mock political rivals. She never used an abusive word for anyone. She did not lose her cool even when she was asked tough or rude questions by the media. Except perhaps once when a reporter sought her reaction to Union minister Smriti Irani’s barb that the Nehru-Gandhi family had links with terrorists.

She looked exasperated for a moment, pursed her lips. Her jaws hardened and for a moment it seemed she would ask to be driven away without responding. But after a moment’s pause she looked the reporter in the eye and replied, “Yes, I have links with terrorists. My father and my grandmother were both killed by terrorists and so, yes, I have links with terrorists”. The reporter moved back, as if pushed by the vehemence in her voice. Priyanka Gandhi had again got the better of an awkward moment.

An interviewer of a TV channel, speaking to her on the banks of the river in Varanasi, asked who her rival was in UP, who was she fighting with. Samajwadi Party, the interviewer said, claims it was fighting with BJP and the latter acknowledged that its fight was with SP. So, who is she fighting with?

She seemed to be ready for the thrust. "The other two parties are possibly fighting with each other. My fight is with unemployment, with inflation and with atrocities on women," she declared without any hesitation.

While the mainstream media chased BJP and SP leaders and wrote off the Congress, they were forced to take note of her campaign and her presence. She was quick to admit weaknesses of the party. After 30 years, she pointed out, the Congress was contesting all the 403 seats in the state. Three years ago, when she took charge of UP, barring old loyalists the party had no following left in districts. But with the help of other workers, she said, the party had built up the organization from the grassroots.

The day after the final phase of polling, she was back in Lucknow on March 8 to celebrate the 149 women the party had fielded in the election. It was not winning or losing an election that mattered most in politics but what mattered was public interest and the fight for it. I am going to be around; I am going to stay and I will fight, was her stark message.

She did the unthinkable by embarrassing Prime Minister Narendra Modi in public. Even her brother Rahul Gandhi had not managed the feat. How dare the Prime Minister tell people that they had partaken his benevolence (Modi ka namak khaya hai), she asked at her rallies. Political leaders were the ones who should be beholden to the people, not the other way round. How dare the Prime Minister say that he was not aware of the menace of stray cattle? Which world did he inhabit?

Modi got the message. He had met his match and his own speeches mellowed with him going to the extent of admitting his mistake and admit that he was the one who was obliged to the people. Who would have thought Priyanka Gandhi would teach Narendra Modi a lesson in humility?

Her refreshing candour, civility and her admonition of the people would remind old-timers of her great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru. “I am annoyed with the people of Uttar Pradesh because you have elected such leaders; you have given them the courage to be arrogant and you have allowed them to divide you on religion and caste.”

Why should leaders work if they know that they can win elections by talking of religion and caste, she wondered aloud.

She was also unsparing when it came to SP and BSP. We have fought against the RSS and Jan Sangh for generations. But they know they can bend SP and BSP leaders. That is why they attack the Congress and our family. They are not against dynasties or families; they have problem with only one family.

It will not be wrong to say she has arrived. In the months to come it will be far more difficult for the BJP to match her constructive, old-world politics, charm and her oratory.

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)