Highlights:-
- There appears to have been no change in the perceptible condition that the Congress remains electorally weak in Uttar Pradesh under Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
- All four payas (legs) of the Congress khat (cot) in Uttar Pradesh have now left the party in fast succession.
RPN Singh Exit
RPN Singh, the most prominent leader Congress had from the Kushinagar region in eastern UP, was at the vanguard of Rahul Gandhi’s Khat Yatra in 2016, when it began in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh.
Lalitesh Tripathi in Mirzapur, Jitin Prasada in Shahjahanpur, and Imran Masood in Saharanpur assisted with good turnouts at gatherings as the yatra continued.
All four payas (legs) of the Congress khat (cot) in Uttar Pradesh have now left the party in fast succession, highlighting Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s leadership as the state’s general secretary in charge.
“It’s fantastic that you’re taking away the cowards from our party,” Priyanka is believed to have told Akhilesh Yadav on a trip a few months back about Masood’s anticipated departure from the Samajwadi Party.
However, the issue may not be so much about a leader being a coward as it is about one’s political future. RPN Singh, Jitin Prasada, Lalitesh Tripathi, and Imran Masood, the four leaders in question, clearly believed they couldn’t win a seat on a Congress ticket.
All four leaders suffered electoral defeats in their strongholds, losing parliamentary and assembly elections as the Congress party failed to inspire any trust among voters.
“I am well-liked in my neighbourhood, and people want me to represent them, but they just refuse to vote for my party,”
one of the four leaders told News18 in a casual chat.
Despite being popular in his constituency and people characterising him as earnest and accessible, RPN Singh lost elections as an MP from Kushinagar and an MLA from Padrauna to his nemesis,
Swami Prasad Maurya, when our correspondent visited Kushinagar during the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
Priyanka Gandhi’s priorities over RPN Singh Exit
RPN Singh’s transition to the BJP was more accessible by his long-time adversary transferring to the SP. He might even be pitted against Maurya of Padrauna by the party.
Latest Tripathi, Jitin Prasada, and Imran Masood, all of whom lost multiple elections, were in the same boat.
There appears to have been no change in the perceptible condition that the Congress remains electorally weak in Uttar Pradesh under Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The party now has only three MLAs in the state, with four of its legislators from 2017 resigning as well, including Rae Bareli’s Aditi Singh.
Though the party may develop new narratives such as the female voter and the ‘Ladki hun, lad Sakti hun’ (I am a girl, I can fight) campaign, the Congress still faces a long and challenging path in the state.
Many politicians, such as RPN Singh, are just unwilling to risk their political future by going down that tunnel with no light at the end.
When asked who will be the party’s face in the poll-bound state, Priyanka Gandhi responded last week,
“Do you see any other face in Congress in UP?”
Even though she eventually backtracked on that assertion, it appears ironic since the Congress in Uttar Pradesh currently has no significant names.
Edited By- Subbuthai Padma
Published By- Satheesh Kumar
