Priyanka’s Karnataka visit gives a fillip to Congress women leaders in election year

The first visit of Priyanka Gandhi to Karnataka after she became the General Secretary of AICC has infused enthusiasm in Congress women workers and women leaders in the run up for the coming Assembly elections.

According to sources, Priyanka Gandhi had supported the vision of identifying women and, in keeping with that, the state unit seems to have identified three women leaders — Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Soumya Reddy and Pushpa Amaranth — for various levels. Hebbalkar, a Lingayat leader, is likely to be the face of state unity and Soumya Reddy the face of young women. Pushpa Amaranth is at present the state women’s unit president at organisation levels. The party has also planned to seek advice of senior woman leaders like Motamma, Rani Satish and Umashree.

Also read: Bommai derides Priyanka over Congress event in Bengaluru

These measures have raised hopes of the state women leaders of getting recognised. Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress president Pushpa Amarnath and former ministers Umashree and Rani Satish have already said that they will appeal to Priyanka to get more tickets for women in the assembly elections. Pushpa had said that 109 women have applied for 74 constituencies and demanded that tickets be given in at least 30 constituencies.

Hebbalkar to the fore

The Congress is likely to give Lakshmi Hebbalkar more importance as its Panchamasali Lingayat leader. Hebbalkar, the Belagavi Lingayat leader, is in the DK Shivakumar camp and is showing signs of developing into a Panchamasali leader.

The Bommai government’s move to restructure caste reservation categories and put Lingayats into the 2 C category has been stayed by the court. The demand of Panchamasali Lingayats to add them to the 2 A category so as to be eligible for more reservations is yet to be sorted out. Sources said that Hebbalkar may be taking the lead of Panchamasali women in demanding more reservations.

Priyanka Gandhi is said to have discussed with top Congress leaders, including former CM Siddaramaiah and the KPCC chief DK Shivakumar, about nurturing women leaders to lead the party at different levels. It was in this regard that Hebbalkar’s name was proposed by the KPCC chief and it is said that Priyanka Gandhi gave the nod for such an experiment. Hebbalkar has shown the ability to become a state-level leader and proved her mettle while tackling former BJP Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi’s politics on her home turf.

It is worth remembering that Hebbalkar was the reason for the tussle between DKS and Ramesh Jarkiholi when the latter was in Congress. DKS supported Hebbalkar and this made Jarkiholi fume and it became one of the trigger points in the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led JDS-Congress coalition government.

Hebbalkar has been exhibiting leadership qualities while attacking BJP or dealing with senior leaders, including good rapport with Lingayat leader and former CM B S Yediyurappa and others. It is said that she may become the woman face of the Karnataka Congress.

At the same time, Priyanka’s visit and meeting with other women leaders, including former minister Motamma, Rani Satish, Pushpa Amarnath, Umashree and young leaders like Soumya Reddy, have made them aspire for more. Priyanka Gandhi is said to have asked party leaders to give prominence to women at all levels of the organisation as much as possible as it will help the party attract more women voters.

Naa Naayaki

The ‘Naa Naayaki’ (I am the woman leader) programme, in which Priyanka Gandhi participated, will be a continuous process during the election campaign, said a Congress leader. All women workers of the party will use this slogan at the grassroots level to attract more young women to join the party at various levels.

Priyanka Gandhi, who seemed happy after the women’s rally, has asked party office bearers to make this happen at all levels in the organisation. Her ambition is to give women 33 per cent political reservation in the party and party leaders have assured her in this regard.

Gruha Lakshmi

Priyanka Gandhi’s visit has also made the state BJP think again about its poll strategies as the Congress has gone a step ahead in giving election assurances. To woo women voters, the KPCC has announced Rs 2,000 to be given to each woman head of the family under Gruha Lakshmi Yojna. Though Priyanka came under BJP attack for talking about the 200-unit free electricity scheme, but it has given Congress party workers a booster.

Also read: Priyanka’s poll promise in Karnataka: Rs 2000 per month to housewives

Priyanka’s announcement of the Gruha Lakshmi plan is said to have pre-empted the likely announcement of a similar scheme by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the coming state budget in February. The Congress has also announced that the Gruha Lakshmi scheme will be a part of the party’s election manifesto.