'Didn't Pay Bribe So No Ticket': Congress' UP Campaign Poster Girl Alleges Bias Against OBCs

The Vice-president of Mahila Congress in Uttar Pradesh and the poster girl for the party’s “Ladki Hoon, Lak Sakti Hoon” (I’m a girl, I can fight) campaign has leveled “rigging” charges against the grand old party’s selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections. Besides, she has also alleged that she was not given a ticket because she belongs to the Other Backward Classes community.

Maurya on Friday trained her guns at Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on social media and gave interviews to the media accusing her party of “using her” for its campaign but not nominating her as a candidate for the Uttar Pradesh elections.

“I’m sad that despite my hard work in the constituency, I didn’t get the ticket for UP assembly polls. My face was used in ‘Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon’ campaign. I received a landline call and the caller asked me for money for ticket but I denied. I completed all the tasks, but the nominations were pre-planned and was given to a person who joined just a month ago. I want to send this message to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi that this is what is happening on the ground,” she said.

Further, she hit out at Gandhi’s secretary Sandeep Singh on Twitter and accused him of demanding bribe. “They (Congress) used my face, my name and my 10 lakh social media followers for the campaign. But when it came to the ticket for the upcoming election, it was given to someone else. This is injustice. It is all pre-decided. I did not get the ticket because I am an OBC girl and could not bribe Priyanka Gandhi’s secretary Sandeep Singh,” she wrote on Twitter in Hindi.

On the other hand, reacting to the allegations, Priyanka Gandhi’s office said that being featured in a poster “does not mean she was promised a ticket” and that her picture was put “mistakenly”.

Maurya had wished to contest the UP polls from the Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow. However, the party allotted the seat to Rudra Daman Singh.

Maurya said that she entered politics thinking that she would be able to help people and make a difference. “I am a doctor who has done social work. Everyone said I’d get the ticket. The party said it would be decided based on the observers’ report. The observers recommended my name, but I did not get the ticket,” she told India Today.

The allegations come a day after the Congress party announced its first list of 125 candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on Thursday. The party fielded 50 women candidates, making up 40 percent women out of the total candidates.

In the list, mother of the 2017 gang rape victim, a 17-year-old girl in Unnao district has found her name among the 50 women candidates fielded by the Congress party. Activist Sadaf Jafar has also been featured in the first list of candidates.

The list was announced by Congress general secretary incharge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during a press conference. “Our Unnao candidate is the mother of the gangrape victim. We have given her a chance to continue the struggle. The power which oppressed them and ruined their family, they should now get that power,” Vadra had said.

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