Congress banks on Priyanka’s charisma

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 24

Seeking to spruce up its Uttar Pradesh campaign, the Congress today pulled out its trump card with party chief Sonia Gandhi’s reluctant daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attending her first-ever official party meeting in the Capital.

Called to debate party’s election strategy in UP, the meeting saw Priyanka engage with veterans such as AICC general secretary UP Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress CM candidate in the state Sheila Dikshit, state chief Raj Babbar, campaign panel chief Sanjay Singh and coordination committee head Pramod Tewari on the nature of poll plans and the need, if any, to tweak them.

Her brother and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was not present in the two-hour deliberations held at the party’s war room on Gurdwara Rakabganj Road here.

The significance of the occasion wasn’t lost on anyone with top Congress brass admitting that the meeting has set the stage for Priyanka’s launch in the UP elections and her subsequent entry into the Congress organisation.

“All this may just be a matter of time. The fact that this is the first time Priyanka attended any formal Congress meeting is significant in itself. Equally significant is the fact that the Congress vice-president was not there which means the party consciously wants to send the signal that Priyanka is actively involved in UP strategy alongside her brother,” said a senior UP Congress leader who attended the meeting.

Priyanka took stock of the three Congress campaigns that have concluded in UP —Rahul’s 26-day kisan yatra; a bus yatra “27 saal UP behaal” undertaken by seniors Azad and Sheila and Rahul’s workers’ meeting in Lucknow.

Priyanka also heard leaders’ suggestions on party strategist Prashant Kishor’s plans and the need to change them. Only four days ago, former chief of the UP Congress Rita Bahuguna had quit the party, blaming Kishor’s style of working.

There is speculation that Priyanka may launch her election campaign in UP from Allahabad to draw upon her great grandfather Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy.