Cong pins hopes on Priyanka to better performance in UP polls

New Delhi: With Congress all set to go for the polls in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in the name of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the key challenge for the party is to re-correct its earlier performances as the Grand Old party has not even crossed 50 plus mark in the politically sensitive state in the last 32 years.

The party had last won 94 seats in 1989 to become the Opposition face and prior to that election year, Congress had won 269 seats out of 425 assembly seats in 1985.

The party that had contested the 2017 assembly election in the name of Rahul Gandhi had witnessed the worst-ever performance in that year as Congress had won just seven seats out of 403 assembly seats in 2017 polls. In 2017, the party had contested the election in alliance with Samajwadi Party.

As per political experts, Congress is on its revival mission as it has seen its worst. Now, the party's performance graph will go a little ahead of its performances and that is the reason that the Grand Old party has decided to go alone in the multi-corner contest for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

"The positive aspect of Priyanka being the face of the party is her accessibility and acceptability among party workers. She visits Uttar Pradesh regularly to meet locals in coordination with party leaders at the local level. It gives a sense of ownership among party workers," the political commentators have observed.

The decisions like changing the state's Congress president from Raj Babbar to Ajay Kumar Lallu, who is known as 'street-fighter'' has also helped in the revival of the party as well as making Priyanka's every visit to the state successful.

In a major course correction move, senior leader and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid has announced that the party will contest the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections under the leadership of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Congress will not form an alliance with any political party for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Priyanka returned back to Delhi on Monday after completing her three-day Rae Bareli visit.