The Electoral Grammar of Priyanka Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh: Where Means Matter

The Congress campaign in Uttar Pradesh attempts to reset the male-dominated narrative. This is a signal of hope.

(Photo: Kamran Akhtar/TheQuint)

Women's mass mobilisations have a long and impactful history in democratic India.

The ecofeminist Chipko movement, the Mathura anti-rape movements and the Dignity March, the anti-alcoholism mass protests by rural women, spontaneous public outpourings after the Nirbhaya gang rape, stand-offs against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC), and the farm laws – every one of these has driven policy change. When women hit the street, they don't miss!

Nevertheless, political parties have not mobilised women as a bloc.

Parties like the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Trinamool Congress – helmed by strong women leaders like the erstwhile J Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee, respectively – were at the forefront of cultivation of women as a vote bloc.

Parties like the Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), too, put an effort in cultivating women as a vote bloc and reaped the benefits. But all parties left them underutilised in election campaigns.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's Uttar Pradesh (UP) campaign, with the slogan – 'Ladki hoon! Lad sakti hoon' – attempts to rewrite the usual grammar of election campaigns.

By promising that at least 40 percent of the candidates will be women when the election campaign began in 2021 and then by sticking to it, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has set a benchmark and has shown that means matter.

The Grammar of Electoral Campaigns

An electoral campaign features five actors. The originator of the campaign is typically the political party's campaign engine or hired strategists. The drivers are the local district or constituency leaders, the executors are the party cadre.

The participants filling the rallies or roadshows are coaxed from the general public, and the immediate and local beneficiaries, are candidates seeking the ballot.

All these five actors are typically male, or male-dominated units. Occasionally, the party is led by a female originator (head of the party). But she too is surrounded by male top brass. Ditto for a female campaign driver – engulfed by men above, around, and beyond. Equally rarely, in fact about in 8-10 percent of the cases, the immediate local beneficiary, that is, candidate, is female.

Even the participants, that is, the audiences in events are almost entirely male, barring a small cache of women in a corner.

Thus, the normative campaign life cycle is male-dominated – designed, executed, delivered, and targeted towards the male electorate, as are party messages. They simply expect female voters to follow male suit. An all-female rally, to put quite simply, is a one-off.

Feminising Electoral Campaigns

The Congress campaign in UP attempts to reset the male-dominated narrative.

It has already featured several all-female marathons in cities like Meerut, Lucknow, Bareilly, etc, where thousands of young women have been the sole participants.

Similarly, the Shakti Samvaad townhall across the cities like Ferozepur, Rae-Bareilly, etc, are exclusively female, garnering thousands of women, including ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) and Anganwadi workers.

It is novel for mass campaigns to feature women as mainstay, and is a refreshing change from run-of-the-mill rallies where women are hard to spot.

In addition, door-to-door campaigns with a posse of women (only) engaging female voters in conversations and tailoring party messages for them is unheard of. Contrast this with a typical door-to-door campaign that features mostly men, fronted by couple of women as door openers for the male main act.

Female Troopers Consistent With Slogan

The Congress' first candidates list builds upon the campaign theme, enlisting many female troopers, consistent with the slogan: Sadaf Jafar of the CAA/NRC fight, a mother forced to battle Unnao's then BJP MLA and convicted rapist Kuldeep Singh Sengar, Poonam Pandey who led ASHAs in a fight for fair wages, and others who have already built warrior images in the hearts of voters.

A novel campaign life cycle consistent with the campaign's objective of women's political emancipation, has the potential to transform electoral politics, provided some conditions are met.

1. Priyanka Gandhi persuades the Congress to persist in these of-for-by women election campaigns through this election and beyond.

2. The party makes such campaigns pervasive across UP and beyond.

3. They wrest a modicum of political power through the gambit, that is, female wins.

The last, of course, is mostly in the hands of the supreme – the voters. Nevertheless, electoral campaigns, for the first time in India, have been feminised.

We are witness to this very welcome mutation, not in the more developed Kerala or Tamil Nadu, but in the boondocks of most backward UP, in the backdrop of masculine Hindutva.

Therein, lies hope!

(Tara Krishnaswamy is the co-founder of Political Shakti, a non-partisan group of citizens campaigning for more women MLAs & MPs. She tweets at @tarauk. The views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for them.)