Law & order campaign fails to revive Congress in Uttar Pradesh

The Congress protests over the Hathras incident and the state’s law and order situation, and the party’s claimed ‘connect’ that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had with the people saw little resonance on the ground in the recent bypolls with the Congress losing its security deposit in four of the six seats it contested.

Congress also lost deposits in four seats in Bihar where it won only 19 of the 70 seats it contested. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech at the BJP office on Wednesday attacked the Congress saying those who did not understand that elections are decided on issues of development are losing their deposits in various states.

“The country’s development and the state’s development are the biggest parameters and it will be so in the coming elections too,” PM said.


The Congress lost deposits in Bulandshahr, Malhani, Naugawan Sadat and Deoria assembly seats in UP. Congress secured just 1.39% of the votes in Malhani, 2.2% in Naugawan Sadat, 5.1% in Bulandshaher and 2.1% in Deoria, as per the Election Commission.

In the Bihar assembly elections, Congress lost its deposits in Chainpur, Paroo, Nalanda and Harnaut seats.

“It is said by some that issues like bank accounts, gas connections, houses, good roads, railways stations, river bridges and internet connectivity do not matter in elections. But people are telling them that these are the real issues,” the PM had said on Wednesday.

UP BJP secretary Chandramohan said the Congress does not have a state leadership that understands the state and said the party is only involved in “symbolic activism” while Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is active only on Twitter and social media.

“The BJP has a strong organisation and the party fought very sincerely. Who had stopped Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from campaigning when the chief minister and senior leaders of the BJP campaigned during the elections,” he asked.

UP Congress Chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, the sitting MLA from Tamkuhi Raj, which falls under the Deoria Lok Sabha constituency, said: “It is true that in three of the six seats we got very few votes but we are striving to improve and in two seats we came second while SP came fourth and in another we defeated the SP. In Naugawan Sadat, we have not fought an election in 20 years. We are serious about our performance.”