New Delhi: The Congress appears to be pinning its hopes on the Gandhi family for its revival with speculations growing over Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra entering active politics during the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
In a report submitted to the party present, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the new Congress general secretary in-charge of state, suggested executive role for Priyanka Gandhi.
The report mentioned that Priyana should campaign beyond the Nehru-Gandhi pocket borough i.e. Rae Bareli and Amethi. Priyanka has so far campaigned in the two constituencies represented by her month Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi.
Sources said that it is most likely that this time Priyanka, who has been attending the party’s strategy meeting for UP polls with Azad, will not restrict her campaign only in Rae Baraily and Amethi.
“I have seen Priyanka Gandhiji campaigning for party from last 10 years in Rae Bareli and Amethi. She knows each and every party worker in the region… she known their strength and weakness. She is a charismatic person and charming person like Indira Gandhi. Whenever Priyankaji visits Rae Bareli and Amethi, she stops in my constituency and meet the workers… I don’t when she will take the charge and how much she will involve herself in the party’s functioning… any decision about her role will be decide by the Gandhi family. It will be decided by Sonia Gandhiji and Rahul Gandhiji. But I am sure that if she plays a bigger role it will be a challenge for Samajwadi Party and BJP,” Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said.
44-year-old Priyanka is regarded as the party’s “Brahmastra”, who, several top leaders say can help in regaining lost ground for the Congress in the politically important state.
The Congress party, which managed to bag only 28 seats in the 2012 assembly polls, sources said, wants to be the kingmaker this time.
Several top Congress leaders had in past favoured Priyanka getting into active politics but the Gandhi family could not decide on her role. They have said that Priyanka has the potential to emerge as a mass leader. An Assembly election in the most populous state of the country is due early next year.
In Uttar Pradesh, Congress had secured just two seats in the last Lok Sabha elections with party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi emerging victorious from their traditional seats of Rae Bareli and Amethi, respectively.
The Congress is in political wilderness in Uttar Pradesh since 1989 following emergence of divisive ‘Mandal-Mandir’ politics and rise of the BSP, which took away its crucial Dalit vote base.
