You did not bow down, you did not stop: Priyanka Gandhi congratulates UP Congress workers

NEW DELHI: Congratulating the party workers of Uttar Pradesh for putting up a good fight in Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday said that her party workers and the people in the state sent a clear message to the whole nation that public issues are "paramount".

Congress contested Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party on a 63:17 formula and registered victory on seven seats out of the 17 seats allotted in its quota.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary said, "My salute to all my colleagues of UP Congress. I saw you working hard in the sun and dust, you did not bow down, you did not stop, you showed courage to fight in the toughest of times. You were tortured, false cases were filed against you, you were put in jail, and you were repeatedly put under house arrest but you did not get scared. Many leaders left in fear, but you remained firm."

"I am proud of you and the conscious people of UP. You gave a strong message to the whole of India to save our Constitution," she added.

Priyanka Gandhi further said that the old ideals of politics have been re-established in these Lok Sabha polls.

"You have re-established an old ideal in today's politics - that public issues are paramount, and the price of ignoring them is heavy. Elections are of the public, it is the public who fights and it is the public who wins," Gandhi said.

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slipped to 33 seats from 63 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) Chief and state cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar claimed that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress "confused" the public by stating that the constitution is in "danger".

"The SP and the Congress confused the public by repeatedly saying that the constitution is in danger. By making this an issue, they ate up the vote share of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) too, due to which we had to suffer losses in the state", Rajbhar said.

In a major setback to the BJP, it gained only 33 seats against 63 in the 2019 LS polls, with the vote share being 41.37 per cent. Some of the most-watched seats which the BJP lost include -- Faizabad, Amethi, and Raebareli.

The Samajwadi Party, on the other hand, secured 37 seats by itself, thus witnessing a massive improvement in the state. The vote share of the SP stood at 33.59 per cent.

The BJP victory tally was much lower than its 2019 tally of 303 and the 282 seats it had won in 2014. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats compared to 52 that it had won in 2019 and 44 seats in 2014.