Mayawati is "quiet" in UP polls, I am surprised: Priyanka Gandhi

By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], January 22 (ANI): Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has expressed "surprise" at the "low-profile campaign" of BSP in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and said its campaign has not picked up expected pace even though the state is in the middle of the polls.
Asked about the widespread perception that BSP chief Mayawati was not campaigning in her usual style in the polls and was quiet, Gandhi said she was also surprised.
"I am also surprised seeing... six-seven months back we use to think that her party is not active, maybe they will start close to elections. We were also very surprised that the election has started we are in the middle of the election and it has not become active. As you said, (she) is very quiet, I am not able to understand," Priyanka Gandhi said in an interview with ANI.
"It is possible that the BJP government is exerting pressure," she added.
Asked about her role in five election-bound states and in other states, Priyanka Gandhi said she has campaigned in Assam and Goa.
"Where ever my party tells me, I do it," she said. When asked about Congress' alliance talks not being fruitful in UP and whether fighting polls on its own would be the model in other States, Priyanka Gandhi responded that pre-poll alliances or fighting polls on its own would be "dynamic policy" for the Congress.
"I can speak for Uttar Pradesh. We have experimented with alliances in the past in UP. We had an alliance in 2017 with Samajwadi Party. Before that, we had an alliance with BSP. So in Uttar Pradesh, this is the path we have chosen. I cannot speak about other States whether the Congress party would choose this path. I think it will have a dynamic policy about this and it will take a decision according to what those decisions are," she said.
Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls in seven phases beginning February 10 and results will be declared on March 10. (ANI)