'UP results damaged Priyanka's political brand'

'Priyanka did draw huge crowds and eventually all of those ended up voting for the Samajwadi Party.'
'The voters today are smart enough to vote for the party which they know is going to win or they know this party will come second, but no way will they vote for a party which will come third or fourth.'

The Congress party's apparent trump card, Priyanka Gandhi, failed in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election.

The Congress won just two seats of the 403 seats it contested. Worse, its candidates lost their deposits in 380 seats.

What went wrong with brand Priyanka? And can India's oldest political party be revived ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024?

"Priyanka showed a lot of mettle, a lot of character and a lot of grit," Sanjay Jha -- author of The Great Unravelling: India After 2014 and The Superstar Syndrome: Making of a Champion and a former Congress spokesperson -- tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, adding, "I haven't seen that in Rahul Gandhi, for sure."

The first of a two-part interview:

The Gandhis said they were ready to step down from leadership positions at the Congress Working Committee meeting on Sunday. Do you believe that?

There are two elements to it.

The first is that the people who are offering their resignations know it is not going to be accepted. Basically, this is a cosmetic gesture because the end result is known.

The second aspect is that those who ought to be responding to that offer by saying 'Okay, there has to be accountability in the Congress party and the buck stops at the top leadership', they don't have the spine or character or the independence to do that.

So, it is a double whammy for the Congress party as after the historic defeat, there is going to be no change in the leadership.

It also tells you that the Congress Working Committee is nothing but a bunch of jokers.

Ghulam Nabi Azad said after 2014 the Congress has lost 39 out of 49 elections. So, who are these people in the Congress Working Committee who don't dare to say anything to the Gandhis?

There is a simple answer. For the last 22-23 years there has been no election to the Congress Working Committee.

The CWC only has appointees who have been appointed by the Congress president so they have all become loyalists who have sacrificed their conscience and sold their soul.

The fact is that you found nothing wrong in transparency and internal democracy, elections within the party and accountability for more than 20 years so these people cannot wake up one fine day and criticise the whole system.

There are a few members of the CWC who are part of G-23 and they have woken up belatedly to challenge, but the fact is that you lose two Lok Sabha elections and win 44 seats in 2014 and 52 seats in 2019.

Thereafter, you lose 39 state assembly elections out of 49 elections held and it is a manifestation of not a serious internal crisis within the party, but it is an exhibition of lack of moral character of its entire leadership within the party, the leader at the helm and members of the CWC.

The CWC is the most powerful body of the Congress party, so how many people are there, and when were these people appointed?

You can look at the numbers, but the fact is that the CWC has remained the same and it has not changed for so many years.

People are invited and there are special invitees, but who takes the decision?

I will give you the example of Punjab.

When the Congress was changing the chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, shouldn't that decision be taken after taking the CWC into confidence?

Captain Singh won Punjab for you when the BJP wave ran across India in 2017.

He won against the wave and won every Punjab municipal election and panchayat elections that were conducted in Punjab after the BJP wave hit the country till 2021.

I have tweeted how in Punjab the Congress defeated the Congress just because someone did not like Captain Singh.

After which a backroom boy was asked to do a survey who did a fake survey by stating that Captain Singh had only two percent popularity and Navjot Singh Sidhu had 45 percent; after that the rest is history.

Now, I have given you the hint. It is the job of the media to find out who was this backroom guy. Someone in the Congress party has to find out who are these people who ensured the Congress defeat in Punjab.

It is a big scam of the Congress party.

• 'Sidhu wrecked the Congress in Punjab'

Priyanka Gandhi proved a dismal failure in UP. What did she do wrong?

I had warned her that her political brand would get seriously damaged if she over-invests herself in Uttar Pradesh.

The last time the Congress had double digits (MLAs) in Uttar Pradesh was in 1996 and at that time the Congress was still a player at the Centre and one of the biggest political parties in the country.

At that point, the Congress had nine percent votes in the UP assembly. In the last 26 years they were battered in the state.

Priyanka Gandhi worked very hard and her slogan 'Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon' was lovely on women's empowerment and an excellent idea.

But how can you revive a party which was in the doldrums for nearly 26 years?

The Congress didn't have an organisational base and dynamic workers left.

Priyanka did draw huge crowds and eventually all of those ended up voting for the Samajwadi Party.

The voters today are smart enough to vote for the party which they know is going to win or they know this party will come second, but no way will they vote for a party which will come third or fourth.

The UP election results damaged Priyanka Gandhi's political brand, but I still feel she showed a lot of mettle, a lot of character and a lot of grit.

I haven't seen that in Rahul Gandhi, for sure.

• Part 2: 'Congress needs a young leader like Sachin Pilot'