Reuters, Ayodhya :
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra became the latest member of India’s storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to enter politics in January, but the boost she brings the opposition campaign may not turn the tide against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, polls show.
After years of speculation, the charismatic Vadra joined Congress to help its leader, her brother Rahul, in general elections that begin next week, pitching the party and regional groups against Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led alliance.
Congress hopes the fourth-generation siblings of a dynasty that ruled India for decades after independence from Britain in 1947 and is still revered by many will help energize its ranks and counter Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In the run-up to the election that starts on Thursday, the 47-year-old Vadra has spent hours campaigning in cars, trucks and even a boat,
to woo voters in northern Uttar Pradesh, which sends more lawmakers to parliament than any other Indian state.
Reuters followed her at two roadshows where she smiled, waved, and shook hands, occasionally wading into crowds as her security detail scrambled along. Her father and grandmother, both former prime ministers, were assassinated.
Thousands of people lined the streets for several kilometers, waving Congress flags and chanting her name.
“There is support for Congress because of Priyanka,” said Mahesh Gupta, a shopkeeper in the temple town of Ayodhya, where she visited a shrine in late March.
Gupta, who referred to Vadra by her first name, as many Indians do, voted for Modi in the last election, but said he was considering Congress after seeing her campaign.
Ayodhya is at the heart of decades of tension between Hindus and minority Muslims, as Hindu groups led by the BJP have campaigned for a temple to the god-king Rama to be built on the site of a mosque razed to the ground by Hindu zealots in 1992.
Vadra, a marquee campaigner for Congress, chose Ayodhya as one of her first tours to take on the BJP in its own bastion.
Even so, in the face of the formidable political machine of the BJP which also rules the state, Congress may be unable to capitalize on her appeal, pollsters and some party leaders said.
Vadra’s campaigning was getting attention for Congress it would not have got otherwise, but it did not look like the party was making gains, said Milan Vaishnav, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Many in Congress say the Priyanka play is more about building up the party for 2022 assembly elections and beyond,” he said, referring to state elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Last month, polling agencies CVoter and CNX separately estimated Congress would win just 4 of the 80 seats up for grabs in the state, doubling its tally since the last general election in 2014.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra became the latest member of India’s storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to enter politics in January, but the boost she brings the opposition campaign may not turn the tide against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, polls show.
After years of speculation, the charismatic Vadra joined Congress to help its leader, her brother Rahul, in general elections that begin next week, pitching the party and regional groups against Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led alliance.
Congress hopes the fourth-generation siblings of a dynasty that ruled India for decades after independence from Britain in 1947 and is still revered by many will help energize its ranks and counter Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In the run-up to the election that starts on Thursday, the 47-year-old Vadra has spent hours campaigning in cars, trucks and even a boat,
to woo voters in northern Uttar Pradesh, which sends more lawmakers to parliament than any other Indian state.
Reuters followed her at two roadshows where she smiled, waved, and shook hands, occasionally wading into crowds as her security detail scrambled along. Her father and grandmother, both former prime ministers, were assassinated.
Thousands of people lined the streets for several kilometers, waving Congress flags and chanting her name.
“There is support for Congress because of Priyanka,” said Mahesh Gupta, a shopkeeper in the temple town of Ayodhya, where she visited a shrine in late March.
Gupta, who referred to Vadra by her first name, as many Indians do, voted for Modi in the last election, but said he was considering Congress after seeing her campaign.
Ayodhya is at the heart of decades of tension between Hindus and minority Muslims, as Hindu groups led by the BJP have campaigned for a temple to the god-king Rama to be built on the site of a mosque razed to the ground by Hindu zealots in 1992.
Vadra, a marquee campaigner for Congress, chose Ayodhya as one of her first tours to take on the BJP in its own bastion.
Even so, in the face of the formidable political machine of the BJP which also rules the state, Congress may be unable to capitalize on her appeal, pollsters and some party leaders said.
Vadra’s campaigning was getting attention for Congress it would not have got otherwise, but it did not look like the party was making gains, said Milan Vaishnav, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Many in Congress say the Priyanka play is more about building up the party for 2022 assembly elections and beyond,” he said, referring to state elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Last month, polling agencies CVoter and CNX separately estimated Congress would win just 4 of the 80 seats up for grabs in the state, doubling its tally since the last general election in 2014.
