UP, 5/11:At a recent election rally, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi family that dominates the opposition Congress party, strode on stage and asked the crowd to repeat after her: “I’m a woman, I can fight.”
The slogan is at the heart of the party’s bid to revive its fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state that goes to the polls early next year, by winning over women voters who have long been marginalised but are starting to find a voice.
The Uttar Pradesh result will offer a clue as to whether the Congress, which dominated Indian politics for decades, can mount a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next general election in 2024.
Modi came to power in 2014 on promises of economic growth and a strong, modern India, and secured a convincing re-election victory in 2019.
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