Priyanka given free run by Yogi?

Saurabh Sharma | NT 

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi stormed the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s bastion of Gorakhpur on Sunday, drawing a massive crowd of over 30,000 people, rattling the BJP leadership which is banking on the upper caste Thakur vote to turn the anti-incumbency around. Gorakhpur is the bastion of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, from where he has been elected to parliament five times and remains the chief priest of the Gorakhpur math, so the question remains as to why the Congress leader who has had multiple run-ins with Yogi’s police corps, and launched a blistering attack on the BJP state government, accusing Yogi of ‘ditching the people’, was not challenged here. Officials hinted that they had been told not to stop her, saying that Yogi was allowing Priyanka to gain media traction in a bid to cut into the Samajwadi Party vote bank.

Taking a dig at Yogi, Priyanka said that anyone who challenged Guru Gorakhnath faced threats or were jailed and slammed the state of healthcare facilities in Gorakhpur. The battle for Uttar Pradesh will prove to be crucial, especially because it will be seen as a bellwether for the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has already begun his transition in campaign mode, BSP supremo Mayawati appears to be absent from the electoral stage. The BJP, which has been in power in UP, Uttarakhand and Goa, will have to overcome anti-incumbency sentiment by convincing voters on its record on development, poverty alleviation and management of the COVID
pandemic in particular.