LUCKNOW: Making a conscious effort to shun the old baggage and present her party in a 'new avatar' in Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has hand-picked over 70 per cent new faces among the total 166 candidates for the high-stakes state assembly election.
Besides sticking to her promise of 40 per cent women candidates, Gandhi has overwhelmingly given a chance to debutants with an aim to build a new leadership in the Hindi heartland, which had slipped from the party hands in recent years.
Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to have seven-phase polls for the 403 assembly constituencies beginning from February 10.
The results will be out on March 10.
Of the total 166 names declared so far by the Congress, 119 candidates will be making their electoral debut, party spokesman Anshu Awasthi told PTI.
With the candidature of Sangeeta Tyagi, wife of party leader late Rajiv Tyagi, from Sahibabad seat, Gandhi has made an earnest effort to break the mould and create new leadership in the century-old party which has faded into political oblivion.
"Priyanka Gandhi has made an attempt to bring all those fighting on people's issues, be it regarding women, youth, farmers, backwards or dalits, to the forefront," Awasthi said.
He said the list of candidates gives a clear vision of the party's effort to give a new direction to the state politics which has been suffering from caste and religion-based politics for years.
"Party tickets have been given to youth and those who are working strongly in their respective fields," the Congress spokesman said, adding that in the first list of 125 names, 26 candidates are those who are up to 35 years of age.
He said 55-year-old Asha Singh, mother of the Unnao rape victim; anti-CAA activist and party spokesperson Sadaf Jafar; ASHA worker and activist Poonam Pandey who fought for the rights of ASHA workers and was attacked at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's programme at Shahjahanpur; Ram Raj Gond who fought for the rights of Adivasis in Sonbhadra; are all making their debut this election.
Similarly, Bhawana Valmiki, social activist from Hapur; Yasmin Rana from Charthawal; Salma Agha Ansari from Thakurdwara; Kalpana Singh from Bilari; Nafees Saifi from Meerut South; Sukhvinder Kaur from Saharanpur are among those who will be contesting for the first time.
Other women candidates in the Congress list are Ritu Singh from Mohammadi in Lakhimpur Kheri who was manhandled during the recent panchayat elections; Poonam Pandit from Syana who was an international shooter before working as a bouncer to Haryanvi dancer Sapna Chaudhari and later got associated with the farmers agitation.
Archana Gautam, who won Miss bikini 2018 and worked in south Indian films, from Hastinapur; and Avanish Kajala from Meerut Cant are also in this list.
Kajala is also the district unit president of the party.
The Congress had released the first list of 125 names on January 13 and the second list of 41 names on January 20.
Another party leader said fielding new faces will not only infuse fresh energy into the party, but also help tide over internal bickering which had been plaguing the organisation since long.
Releasing the first list, Priyanka Gandhi had stated that the party has chosen such candidates who have struggled for seeking justice in Uttar Pradesh and the party wants them to come to the forefront and be a part of power in the state.
Priyanka Gandhi, who has made it clear that she would be the party face in Uttar Pradesh, is faced with a daunting task to regain the party's lost glory.
The Congress had bagged only seven seats in the 2017 assembly polls, with two of the winning candidates having ditched the party for the BJP.
In the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress party will launch Sunday a "Speak Up" campaign for youths to share their alleged experiences of having been cheated by the state's present and previous governments.
The state unit of the party will launch the novel poll campaign programme on the birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose, two days after the release of its "Bharti Vidhan", a poll manifesto for youths, said Naseemuddin Siddiqui, the in-charge of the party's state unit wing of media and communication.
In the "Speak UP" campaign, the youths will share on Twitter and Facebook their "faith" in the "Bharti Vidhan" while also recounting their experiences of being cheated by the state governments, including the present one Yogi Adityanath, he said.
Dubbing "Bharti Vidhan" a "document of hopes and aspirations of seven crore youths of Uttar Pradesh", he said if voted to power, the Congress party will give government jobs to 20 lakh youths with 40 per cent of beneficiaries, totalling 8 lakh, being girls.
During the present government, the youths have been left preparing diligently for various competitive exams for jobs, only to find at the end that their question papers have been leaked.
"During the reign of this incompetent government, papers of 12 examinations were leaked.
Somehow, even if the examinations were conducted, the candidates kept struggling for results and appointments," he said.
In the last five years, there have been many such occasions when batons were used on candidates seeking jobs, he said.
The chief minister claims the number of government jobs in Uttar Pradesh far exceeds the job-worthy youths, he said, adding the Congress, however, believes that every youth is worthy of a job but the Adityanath government failed to create opportunities for them.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had on Friday released the Congress' manifesto for youths ahead of the assembly elections, saying only the party can give a new vision for the youths of the state.
Addressing a press conference at the launch of the "Bharti Vidhan" on Friday, Rahul Gandhi had said the vision document is "not hollow words" but has been drafted after consulting youths whose views are reflected in it.
In the manifesto, the party has resolved to fill the "massive backlog" of employments in the public sector and promised 20 lakh jobs, including eight lakhs for women.
"The youth in Uttar Pradesh needs a new vision and only the Congress party can give it to the state," the former Congress president had said.