Cong performance has improved: Priyanka

LUCKNOW: When Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday said the Congress performance had improved in by-elections to 11 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, she had valid reasons to say so.

Although Congress did not score victory on any seat, it secured second position on two seats and remained ahead of BSP on six.

Besides Gangoh, where the party accused the BJP of manipulating the people’s verdict in its favour, the Congress candidate remained on second position in

Govindnagar constituency of Kanpur. The Congress secured 28 per cent votes against 23.95 per cent in 2017 in Gangoh, while in Govindnagar it secured 32.43 per cent votes against 22.02 per cent in 2017.Congress had the contested 2017 assembly polls in alliance with Samajwadi Party. Out of the 11 by-poll seats, Congress contested only five in 2017 and the increase in votes share in the two seats is being considered important. However, on the other three seats the party’s poll percentage fell vis-à-vis 2017 polls.

Seats where Congress candidates remained ahead of BSP include Gangoh, Rampur, Lucknow Cantonment, Govindnagar,

Pratapgarh and Zaidpur.

Priyanka too said poll percentage of her party in the by-polls had increased. “Our poll percentage was 6.25 per cent in 2017 assembly elections. We have got nearly double of this poll percentage,” said an Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) spokesman here. The Congress poll percentage on seats contested (with SP support) was, however, 22.09 in 2017. Priyanka also accused the BJP of pressurising the district magistrate Saharanpur to change the election results of Gangoh where her party candidate Noman Masood lost to the BJP by about 5,000 votes. Priyanka further said her party would fight against the BJP’s act and demanded that the election commission should conduct a fair probe into the issue.

“BJP is so arrogant that its minister has been making efforts to change the people’s verdict by moving our winning candidate in Gangoh out of the counting centre. DM was getting phone calls for five times. This is an insult to democracy…Uttar Pradesh Congress will fight against this and the election commission should get the issue probed in an impartial manner,” said Priyanka in two separate tweets.

Priyanka winding up her three-day visit to Rae Bareli on Thursday.