UP polls: Did Priyanka manage to outdo PM Modi as a star campaigner?

During her first election rally in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, Priyanka Gandhi focussed on attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Lucknow, Feb 18: On Friday, Priyanka Gandhi made her debut as a campaigner for the Congress for the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2017. She and her brother Rahul Gandhi addressed an election rally at Rae Bareli, which is also the parliamentary seat of their mother Sonia Gandhi.

As expected, Priyanka decided to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi in her address to the voters. "Does UP need an adopted son?" Priyanka asked. Her remark was clearly a reference to PM Modi's recent statement that he was the 'adopted son' of UP.

"Krishna was born in Uttar Pradesh, but made Gujarat his karma bhoomi. I was born in Gujarat, but Uttar Pradesh has adopted me. It is a privilege for me. Uttar Pradesh is like 'mai-baap'. I am not a son who would ditch his mai-baap. I will always care about Uttar Pradesh," PM Modi said, stressing that he would not let down the people of the state. "Despite being an adopted son, it is my duty to develop Uttar Pradesh," PM Modi said at an election rally in UP's Hardoi recently.

During her short speech at the rally, Priyanka urged the voters that the state did not need to adopt an 'outsider'. "The PM has said that 'Varanasi adopted me'. It came to my mind, does UP need to adopt someone from outside. Are there no young men in UP who can take the state forward? There are two young men, Rahul ji and Akhilesh ji, who are in front of you."

"Every young man in the state can become a leader and work for the development of UP," she continued, urging the crowd to ignore those "who have lied to you and broken their promises" and to vote for the alliance.

Seasoned campaigner versus novice

It was PM Modi who lead the campaign of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. The entire BJP campaign depended on him and the PM came out with flying colours by winning the elections 'brilliantly'. This assembly election season also the PM is campaigning aggressively, especially in UP.

By now, he has attended more than a dozen rallies across UP. In most of his rallies he targeted the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance. He vociferously spoke against the 'misdeeds' of both the opposition parties, highlighting issues of corruption and crime cases that took place under their rules, both at the Centre and UP.

Why Priyanka should campaign more

If Priyanka and vice president of Congress Rahul want to give a tough competition to Modi, then they need to attend more such election rallies. Moreover, both the Gandhi scions should regularly interact with voters to install confidence among the masses, say political pundits. In the long-drawn UP election battleground, we have to wait and watch till the election results are out to see who has won the support of the people.

OneIndia News