The Congress In UP: Marathon Politics
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2022-01-05 08:44:30
About the Author
The unfortunate incident at the Congress event in Bareilly was entirely avoidable with better management. The Congress has been holding these marathons for the last couple of months across UP under Priyanka Vadra's "Ladki Hun, Lad Sakti Hun" campaign and enticed by the prizes on offer, a sizeable number of participants, sometimes nearly 10000, are turning up for some of these events. The Congress is delighted that the idea is getting traction, but it is debatable whether the party will win votes through it.
The earlier events were held without glitches, although Covid appropriate behavior was not followed. But in Bareilly, as the visuals showed, the huge crowd of participants (without masks and herded together) was not tutored and the eager girls indulged in pushing and shoving to start the run. It is to the credit of the assembled party workers and race managers that they averted disaster. However, the party must take care that such incidents are not repeated in future and the events are managed better, but with rising Covid cases, ideally it should not go ahead with such events now. Even as this was being written, the Congress has announced that it will not hold any more rallies and marathons in UP due to the Covid situation.
As for gaining political capital out of these events and converting it to votes, not many are convinced about it. But the fact remains that a party that has little or no backing in the state has managed to create a buzz with the slogan and these events. Female votes have begun to matter (TMC realized this in Bengal when more women voted for it after it announced a slew of policy measures for their benefit) and the Congress is trying to woo them.
But there is a difference. Female votes can only matter in tight contests when a party wants to increase its vote share and win hotly contested seats. For the Congress, with just under 7 percent vote share in UP, it is a herculean task to rely just on women votes to turn its fortunes. Still, it must be congratulated for speaking up for half the electorate and giving voice to their aspirations.
