A few senior Congress leaders are reportedly upset with the party’s decision to join hands with Muslim politician-cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan in Uttar Pradesh, arguing that the party has not learned lessons from its past.
Raza who has been booked for allegedly issuing threats against the Hindu community and derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, joined the party on Wednesday, following which reports of upset senior leaders in the Congress camp emerged, reported Deccan Chronicle.
A senior party leader argued that the Congress “did not seem to have learned any lesson from the humiliating result in West Bengal polls” where the party, along with the Left Front had allied with the radical Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front. The Samyukt Morcha combine had managed to win just one seat in the West Bengal Assembly.
Similar to the West Bengal, the Congress strategy to join hands with Raza is yet another desperate attempt to garner minority votes. “It failed in Bengal, it might just fail in UP,” said a Congress leader, disgruntled over the decision.
“The move would only provide more firepower to BJP against the Congress,” he added. The Congress in UP, led by AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is desperately eyeing the Muslim and OBC vote banks.
Vadra has also been targeting women voters with a promise of 40 percent tickets to women candidates. The party faced a blow when, Priyanka Maurya the face of the Congress’ ‘Ladki Hun Lad Sakti Hun’ campaign, jumped ships to the BJP.
As Congres strives to keep afloat their ship in UP, the main battle in Uttar Pradesh is between the Samajwadi Party and the BJP, led by Akhilesh Yadav and Yogi Adityanath, respectively.
