How Priyanka Gandhi persuaded Sheila Dikshit to be Congress' UP face

After months of dithering, the Congress leadership has finally made up its mind and announced a well rounded team that will lead its electoral challenge in Uttar Pradesh.  

In a departure from its established practice, it also decided to project a chief ministerial candidate in the crucial state elections in the form of the 78-year-old Sheila Dikshit.

The three-time former Delhi CM was finally persuaded, primarily by Priyanka Gandhi, to give up her initial reluctance.  

It's no secret that Sheila Dikshit was initially less than enthusiastic given the paucity of time.

UP is slated to go to polls in just six months. However, Dikshit was persuaded to come on board and was promised all possible help by the central leadership, including a vigorous campaign by Priyanka Gandhi herself.

Her candidature is in line with the strategy that is being put in place by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, that of projecting a prominent Brahmin leader as the face of the party in UP and then hope to win over the minorities and other castes.

Kishore would have ideally preferred the younger Gandhi sibling to be the face of Congress in volatile UP, but that possibility was comprehensively ruled out.

Sheila Dikshit has all the right credentials. Apart from being married into a prominent political Brahmin family, she has the image of being a "development oriented leader", having changed the face of the capital in  her 15-year stewardship of Delhi.

Also read: Can ‘lightweight’ Raj Babbar turn Congress’ fortunes in UP?

For Congress, naturally, it's clearly all hands on the deck.  For a party not exactly spoilt for choices, almost all the leaders that matter have been entrusted with some responsibility or the other.

Sanjay Singh will head the campaign committee, Pramod Tewari is in charge of coordinating the election campaign. Salman Khurshid, RPN Singh, Jitin Prasad and Sri Prakash Jaiswal are all part of the party's election management team.

But it goes without saying that appointing high-profile office bearers is a lot easier than winning elections.  

The Congress is down and almost out in UP since 1987. In the last Assembly elections, it came fourth, managing to win only 28 of 404 seats.

For a state that once was its pocket borough, the Congress has now been reduced to the status of a peripheral player. The organisation is moribund and party morale is at an all time low.

Also read: 5 reasons Sheila Dikshit won't click as Congress' CM candidate for UP

Sheila Dikshit has asked for her ancestral home in Lucknow's Hazratganj to be dusted up and readied, as she intends to set up home in the UP capital.

For the 78-year-old war horse, this could be her toughest political battle yet.  

She will certainly need more than the promise of Priyanka Gandhi campaigning to win back the Congress'  lost ground in Uttar Pradesh.PT