NEW DELHI: Amar Singh, 30, went shouting hip hip hoorey, the moment he got a message about
the release of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from detention at Sitapur. Standing outside the Lucknow airport, Singh got the company of many others of his age group in cheering for the release of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Wednesday.
“Look, what’s happening now. Earlier, when she used to come here, the supporters were not as enthusiastics as they are now. The detention seems to have come as a blessing in disguise to boost Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s political stature! It happens only politics”, remarked a passer-by in exclamation.
Amid all developments of detention, digitals flashings of her every activities and statements, including angrily arguing with the UP cops on the way to Lakhimpur, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra succeeded in refurbishing her political image ahead of assembly elections 2022 in Uttar Pradesh.
"Whatever the outcome of all this protest against Lakhimpur Kheri incident, one thing is clear now. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has emerged as an instant gainer, at least, in UP politics. She has flashed herself in replication of her grandmother-Indira Gandhi by ways of angrily arguing and altercating with cops and acting against her detention", opined a 56-year-old Nilesh Mishra, who runs a stall of soft drinks, at Sitapur.
He said: "The Congress has again limited itself, this time too, to only four farmers, who died in the incident, neglecting others. So, party might not be in gain but this lady (referring to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra), has refurbished herself certainly in the eyes of people ahead of polls".
Rajesh Dixit, the SP leader from Godda in UP, however had other comments on Priyanka's position which has emerged out of all the political upheavals generated against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
"It can only be called a good PR job by Priyanka or Rahul's digital teams. The duo’s efforts and statements continued flashing instantly more through social media than social connects. Otherwise, the people in UP know them for creating political uproar in politics", he said.
"Satyagrah will not stop", said Rahul Gandhi before he left for Lucknow from Janpath bunglow after a brief interaction with the media on Wednesday.
The Congress PR teams continued flashing even how Rahul Gandhi boarded into a bus to reach the aeroplane; how and with whom inside the plane, he was seated and how he, along with others, was alighting from the flight at Lucknow airport.
Everything, minute to minute, continued in what appeared to be a meticulously planned manner, shared with the media and the people through various digital platforms social media. The twitter handles of both the Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi also played a huge role in fanning the protests.
However, the BJP in the firing lines of Congress leaders maintained their studied silence which also added more fuel to the fire of protest against the Lakhimpur incident. But political analysts believe a bit different from what the people of various sections feel about the Congress Party’s role in the aftermath of Lakhimpur Kheri in totality.
"We didn't take notice of such politics-centric protests. Their every engineered political attempt in the name of protests was avoided by us. The reason behind the entire protest is aimed at shining the fainted political image of a person ahead of polls called Priyanka Gandhi Vadra", said a senior
BJP leader in New Delhi, albeit requesting anonymity.
Dr KK Saxena, a retired medical practitioner, from Lucknow, opined logically:” What others say don’t matter here. What matters is the way the Congress Party has fanned the protests totally unanticipated by the BJP leadership. Whether it happened due to Prashant Kishor behind the scenes, or new digital PR teams, the Congress party has a shown a new political scene to the BJP through its digital manoeuvrings of an incident like that of Lakhimpur Kheri."
A PG student name Shekhar Suman however felt that Priyanka missed the point by centring the protest only on the dead farmers and not the others who were killed in the incident.
A keen observer of various platforms of digital media-cum-researcher, Nilesh Gaur in Delhi said: "I observed the maximum usages of digital platforms by both the Congress Party and the media persons over this protest. Frequent PCs, even from the places where some leaders like CM Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel were detained, rains of tweets by Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and minute to minute sharing of party leaders’ videos and interviews to a select groups of media houses, all these in combined helped the Congress party to run the protests effectively".
He said that all these yielded maximum desired results to the Congress Party from gaining both sympathy in a section of people and political presence refreshed in the poll-bound UP. The UP government had to come back foot and allowed the Congress leaders to visit Lakhimpur.
Dr RK Verma, a political analyst in Patna, who researches on major political developments taking place in the country, said: "The initial mistake on the part of BJP state government was the detention of Congress Party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra citing law and order problem followed by permission to the TMC teams and the Bhim Army leaders to reach Lakhimpur. It put the government in the bad light exhibiting its political vindictiveness in the public. As a result of this basic mistake, the Congress party's outcry reached the people".
And the second mistake, the BJP is still doing is the delay in the arresting the son of minister of state for Home, even after a video, showing a youth (alleged to be the son of the minister) escaping from the mob fury after the incident, has gone viral .
"The government should have, at least, arrested the son of the Union minister or should have asked the minister to step down till investigation is completed. These two basic actions by the government of UP or the BJP in Centre would have been enough to put a check to the protest by the Congress Party and minimised the possibility of electoral losses for the BJP in the upcoming UP assembly elections", opined many political researchers here.