Lok Sabha polls 2019: The significance of Priyanka Gandhi's political debut

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has said that his sister’s entry into politics had been contemplated by the family for a long time. Yet, the timing of her entry into full-time politics has caused some pundits to suggest that the choice was not merely strategic but compelled by events outside the control of the Congress party.
 
Priyanka Gandhi was not even in the country when her appointment as general secretary in charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh was announced. It has been surmised that the decision may have been precipitated by the prospect of imminent government action against her family members. The Jodhpur High Court had lifted the stay on the questioning of her husband Robert Vadra and his mother Maureen Vadra by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. While the stay on their arrest continues, they have been directed to appear before the ED on February 12. Nothing would prevent ED from moving court to lift the stay on their arrest after the questioning.

 
Similarly, the sword of income-tax notices for recovery of nearly Rs 100 crore in the National Herald case has been hanging over Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. If the courts order recovery, they would both be disqualified from contesting the Lok Sabha elections because of their inability to pay the income-tax dues. Action by other investigating agencies has also been spurred on by the powers that be against all those considered close to the family.
 

Yet, it would be belittling Priyanka Gandhi’s political importance to see her debut only as a defensive trump card pulled out at the last moment. Despite dismissive statements by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the turn of events has undoubtedly put the ruling party in a quandary. The BJP’s predictable harping on the dynastic politics of the Congress and insinuations that the larger role given to Priyanka Gandhi is an admission of “failure” by Rahul Gandhi mean little outside the small echo-chambers of party sympathisers.

 
In fact, Priyanka Gandhi cannot fail simply because the Congress is bound to increase its present tally of just 44 Lok Sabha MPs. Some pollsters think that it may go up by at least 70 to 80 seats. Any increase in the party’s tally will be credited to the Gandhi siblings. She could hardly have hoped for such a favourable result if she had made her debut in 2014, when BJP candidate Narendra Modi was riding the wave of popularity.
 
Now she poses a direct challenge to Prime Minister Modi. Her glamour, sophistication and youthfulness compared to the ageing leaders of the BJP, including PM Modi, will make her stand out for the voters during the coming election campaign. They would see a bunch of abusive, threatening and macho leaders on the one side and a charming young woman on the other.

 
She has the added advantage that while the public may be slightly jaded, even bored, by the familiar posturing of Modi and company, there is a curiosity about her as a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi clan. Then there is the added desire among a section of the people to see in her the image of her grandmother Indira Gandhi. Because of these factors, she could take attention away from Prime Minister Modi.
 
Therefore, the campaign for the 2019 general elections will no longer be a one-horse race. Priyanka Gandhi’s entry has also provided an opportunity to a media that has become somewhat restless under the overbearing pressure to conform to the government’s political narrative under BJP rule. There is no way that the media, especially the visual media, can afford to ignore someone as photogenic and television-friendly as Priyanka Gandhi.

 
Her appointment as general secretary in charge of the Congress in Eastern UP also means that PM Modi would be pinned down to contesting from Varanasi, a region under her charge. He cannot afford allegations that he has ‘run away’ because of the young daughter of the Gandhi family.
 
Most importantly, irrespective of how many Lok Sabha victories she adds to the Congress tally, Priyanka will provide an effective counter to the narrative of mixing politics with religion that the BJP has promoted in the Hindi heartland. The saffron-clad, cow-obsessed, shaven headed, tuft donning chief minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath, will inevitably look obscurantist and intolerant beside her liberal, tolerant and a modernist outlook, which will appeal to the youthful voter.

 
Eastern UP may be her primary charge but the Congress party would be foolish not to use her in campaigns across the country. She could also upturn the equation of the Congress with Opposition parties in the regions who might be potential allies. They had begun to treat Congress as a supplicant in the states where they dominated.
 
Although the leaders of the two major anti-BJP parties in the electorally crucial state of UP have said nothing negative about Priyanka Gandhi’s entry — Akhilesh Yadav has in fact welcomed it — one cannot conclude that it will induce them to accommodate the Congress in their grand alliance. However, given Priyanka Gandhi’s potential to attract youth, women and the minority vote across party lines, they will have to contest the Lok Sabha seats in UP much more strategically. Friendly contests will have to be carefully worked out to prevent the BJP from gaining at the cost of the Opposition.

 
After Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into politics, any direct action against her family members would seem like vendetta and there could be a political cost to pay for the BJP. To that extent, the government’s freedom to harass the family might also have been curtailed.
 
Regardless of the Congress party’s performance in these general elections, there will be no going back for Priyanka Gandhi. The Congress party has got a new leader who has the potential to set the party on the path of political recovery under her brother Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. That is the importance of her sister-act — she comes to bolster him, not to outsmart or outdo him.