Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has finally had his way. Following the script prepared by him, the Congress deviated from its rigid ways with a formal announcement on Thursday that former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will be the party’s face in next year’s Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Ever since he was entrusted with the responsibility of steering the Congress’s poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Kishor had been pressing the party leadership that it must project a chief ministerial face, preferably a Brahmin. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was his first preference but Sheila Dikshit was next on his list.
Predictably, there was strong resistance to this proposal since the Congress has always been coy about naming a chief ministerial candidate before an election as it fears that this could lead to further infighting in a state unit. When Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, had announced two days ago that actor-turned politician Raj Babbar, will head the party’s state unit, it was believed that Kishor’s suggestion had been rejected.
Key element
But Thursday’s announcement about Sheila Dikshit shows that Kishor is calling the shots with regard to the Congress party’s poll strategy in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. The projection of a face is a key element in Kishor’s campaigns, which are built around an individual and not political parties. His campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls revolved around Narendra Modi while last year’s Bihar assembly election focused entirely on Nitish Kumar.
In the case of Uttar Pradesh, Kishor zeroed in on Sheila Dikshit for two reasons. He was hunting for a Brahmin face in line with his proposal that the Congress should make a concerted effort to woo the 12% Brahmin population which was once its staunch supporter. Given the Congress party’s limited talent pool, Dikshit was seen to be the best choice as she had emerged as a brand name because of her three-term tenure as Delhi chief minister. In addition, she is the daughter-in-law of Uma Shankar Dikshit, well-known Brahmin leader of Uttar Pradesh. She had declared a few days ago, “I am a bahu of Uttar Pradesh.”
The move to reach out to the Brahmins is based on the calculation that they are unhappy with the Bharatiya Janata Party, their first choice in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But since then, the BJP has been working to consolidate the non-Yadav backward classes and the non-Jatav scheduled castes. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, the two key political players in Uttar Pradesh, enjoy the unstinted support of the Yadavs and the Jatavs, respectively. The Congress believes that if it succeeds in its outreach to the Brahmins, they will provide the necessary base vote that can enable the grand old party to convince the minorities that it is a serious contender in these polls.
Overuling the sceptics
According to the Congress assessment, the Brahmins prefer a party that is willing to give them a prominent role. Hence, Dikshit’s projection as its chief ministerial candidate even though she is facing corruption charges in connection with a Rs 400-crore water tanker scam. Unmoved by the allegations, the Congress dismissed these as malicious propaganda.
“ This announcement will show that the Congress is serious about according prominence to the Brahmins…it will up the ante in the coming elections,” remarked a Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh. The move, he said, will energise the party workers as it sends out a message that the leadership is serious about this election and is working to a plan. This is despite the fact that the Congress also has its fair share of sceptics who believe that age is against the 79-year-old Dikshit and that she will find it difficult to connect with the young voter.
Nevertheless, the twin announcements on Raj Babbar and Sheila Dikshit will help ease the pressure on Priyanka Gandhi, who is being pressed by the Congress cadres to step out of the family strongholds of Rae Bareli and Amethi and campaign across the state. Undoubtedly, Priyanka Gandhi will be the focus of all attention if she does chose to play a larger role in the coming Uttar Pradesh election but she will escape all blame if the Congress fares poorly in the polls.
Protecting Priyanka
The Congress made this mistake in the 2012 assembly polls when its vice-president Rahul Gandhi chose to front the party’s campaign. His position was considerably undermined after the party came fourth with 28 seats. The Congress obviously does not want to go down the same road by pitching Priyanka Gandhi as its chief campaigner.
In order to project the Uttar Pradesh election as a “collective effort” and not a “one man/woman show”, the Congress has gone out its way to assign important roles both to its senior and younger state leaders. The names have also been drawn up with an eye on caste equations. While RPN Singh has been named senior vice-president, another young face from Uttar Pradesh Jitin Prasad is among the four vice-chairmen of the campaign committee which is being headed by Sanjay Singh, a Thakur and a former royal from Amethi. Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, a senior Brahmin face from Uttar Pradesh, has been given charge of the party’s coordination committee which includes seniors like Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khursheed, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Rita Bahuguna.
“We have unveiled a bouquet of faces to counter our political opponents,” declared a Uttar Pradesh Congress leader. "Let’s see how it plays out."
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