UP polls: Learnt from 2017 Goa experience, no pact with SP, says Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra says the Congress has learnt from its mistakes in the previous Goa elections when it could not form the government despite being the single-largest party. She also maintains that the Congress has no understanding with the Samajwadi Party in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. P

Priyanka spoke exclusively to News18 soon after landing in Goa on Monday.

#BattleForStates | CNN News18's @pragyakaushika caught up with Congress General Secretary @priyankagandhi while she was campaigning in Goa.

Listen in to this #Exclusive conversation: pic.twitter.com/Fcmjf0khwC

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“We have learnt from that (2017) experience this time. The Congress party has understood what went wrong. We will not allow it this time. We will win Goa this time with a majority," she told News18.

The Congress in 2017 emerged as the single-largest party in Goa, winning 17 of the 40 Assembly seats. Yet, the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite having 13 MLAs, formed the government. The BJP seized the opportunity and tied up with regional parties and victorious independent candidates even before the Congress could stake a claim to form the government. Several Congress MLAs afterwards quit the party and many switched to the ruling BJP. The Congress is left with only two MLAs in the state.

Priyanka also said that the recent move to make Congress candidates take an oath of loyalty was an important act. “This is very important and it will prove crucial. It is more to reassure the public because our people now are very clear that what happened the last time was wrong and I don’t think a single one of them this time (no MLA) is going to flee,” Priyanka said. Goa politics has been infamous for candidates of various parties shifting their loyalties after elections.

She also said that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is wrong while making allegations that there is match-fixing between the Congress and Samajwadi Party. CM Yogi made the charge in an exclusive interview to News18 on Friday. “It is wrong. Absolutely wrong. We don’t have any sort of understanding with SP," the Congress general secretary incharge of UP told News18. Asked about the Uttar Pradesh chief minister saying that the March 10 result will tell whether Priyanka was a factor in the state or not, she said, “I will say the same to him. March 10 will tell.”

The media was recently abuzz with a picture from western UP where Priyanka and Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary had greeted each other from afar after their paths crossed during election campaigning. The SP and Congress fought the 2017 UP elections in an alliance.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrived in Goa on Monday to campaign for her party’s candidates ahead of the state going to polls on 14 February.​ She has a packed schedule: paying condolences to the first woman sarpanch of Goa late Irene Barros, followed by five public meetings in Majorda, Nuvem, Navelim, St Cruz and Cumbharjua. There will also be door-to-door campaigning in the evening in Panaji before she leaves for Delhi.

“We talk about the safety of women. There was a 24 per cent rise in crime against women in Goa. There is a minister in this government who blamed girls for violence that happened against them. This is typical of a mindset that is unaccepting of what the truth is and unaccepting of the fact that women are equals. I have been working very hard to bring women into the political process. In UP, we have said 40 per cent of women will fight the elections,” Priyanka said at the first meeting.

“The reason I am doing this is that it is women’s right to have 50 per cent of the reservation…it is not like anyone is doing us a favour. And we want to fight for our rights. Politics today has become filled with hatred and anger. 90 per cent of the speeches are negative. I firmly believe that we women being the practical people we are, actually can bring positivity and compassion into politics as well,” Priyanka said.

The 40 Assembly seats in Goa will go to the polls on 14 February and the votes will be counted on 10 March.