Contesting All Assembly Seats in UP After Three Decades Big Gain for Cong: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday said her party will be contesting all the 403 Assembly seats in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls after nearly three decades, terming it a “major achievement”. The Congress general secretary and the party in-charge for Uttar Pradesh also said she is mentally prepared to face FIRs, court cases or even a jail term in her attempt to put up a fight against the Yogi Adityanath government.

Interacting with reporters during her visit to Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar district, she said, “It is after almost three decades that the Congress will be fighting the Assembly polls on all 403 seats of Uttar Pradesh. I think it is a major achievement. We will contest all seats and give a good fight.” The Congress fought the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election in a tie-up with the Samajwadi Party (SP). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the polls, bagging over 300 of the 403 seats, while the Congress-SP combine could manage to win less than 60 seats. Priyanka Gandhi was in Noida, which goes to polls on February 10, to drum up support for Congress candidate Pankhuri Pathak.

On the Uttar Pradesh police lodging FIRs against Congress leaders like Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel during poll campaigning, she said, “I am mentally prepared ever since I started working in Uttar Pradesh. They can lodge cases, arrest me or put me in jail, but we are prepared to fight and struggle for the people.” The Congress general secretary hit out at her party’s political rivals for allegedly focussing their politics on caste and communal lines and appealed to people to focus on issues of development and local problems in the upcoming election. With women safety and their empowerment being a key poll plank of the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi appealed to the women of the state to realise their power and make the election about their issues.

“All women must realise the power they have. Today, women are not considered a political power and why is that? They constitute half of the population but are still not taken seriously in politics because they are not united. All women must stand united and declare that they want politics for their future, self-reliance, independence and demand a chance to fight,” she said.

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