Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has released the first list of 125, candidates, including 50 women, for Uttar Pradesh elections.

Asha Singh, mother of the Unnao rape victim has got the ticket while Asha worker Poonam Pandey, who led agitation for a raise in honorarium, has been fielded from Shahjahanpur.

Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act-NRC activist Sadaf Jafar will be contesting from Lucknow while Sonbhadra’s tribal leader Rajram Gonda has also got the party ticket. 

“By fielding 40 per cent women and 40 per cent youth in UP, we hope to start a new kind of politics in the state,” said Priyanka.

Calling UP government “dictatorial”, she said that Congress will focus on bringing people’s issues, women and development at centre stage in Uttar Pradesh.

She further said that the grand old party will not run a negative campaign but a positive campaign for the bright future of Uttar Pradesh.

We have tried to field such candidates who have struggled for seeking justice in Uttar Pradesh and have the power to fight, she added.

“Our list gives a new message. We want to tell those who have struggled for their rights and for seeking justice in the past, that they have the power to fight for their rights and the Congress party will give that power to them to be a part of power in the state,” Vadra said.

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise Khurshid has also been given the ticket.

She did not answer whether she will contest the elections herself.

The grand old party which was once a force to reckon with in Uttar Pradesh has been out of power in the state for more than 30 years.

Meanwhile, the BJP took a swipe over Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon’ campaign after a mentally challenged minor girl in Congress-ruled Rajasthan was gangraped.

The incident exposes the hypocrisy of the opposition party which talks about women empowerment in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party said.