Congress links MLA tickets with show in local polls

The Congress is banking on the upcoming zila panchayat elections to find a batch of "young faces" that it can hope to field in the 2022 assembly election, as part of the Uttar Pradesh general secretary in charge Priyanka Gandhi's larger focus on the youth factor to combat the ruling BJP and other opposition parties. According to leaders overseeing the party's participation in the upcoming polls, which are being held later this month as part of the three-tier local body polls in the state, the district panchayat polls to be held for 30,051 wards across 75 districts will be an opportunity to strengthen the party’s grassroots level base, driven especially by young candidates, who, if found strong, will be given tickets for next year’s assembly election, which the Congress has said it will fight on its own.

“We have decided to focus especially on youths aged 30-50 years. We have opened the party's doors to them and the party will be willing to give them responsibility, post and, if a person is a strong contender, then also a Vidhan Sabha ticket,” Dheeraj Gurjar, All India Congress Committee national secretary who is overseeing the party's preparations for the panchayat polls in the state, told ET.

Asked how the party would seek to attract the youth since it has been out of power in the state for more than 25 years, Gurjar said, "We have asked our youth Congress and NSUI (party’s student wing) members to make maximum possible post holders fight the panchayat elections. We have also asked our block and nyaya panchayat heads to help youths of their zila panchayat fight the elections and we will help them."