Bringing another member of the Gandhi family into active politics, the Congress party on Wednesday appointed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (47) as the party in-charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. It the region where the Congress has a scant imprint and place from where the rival BJP has sent both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath to the Parliament.
Moments after a party circular announced her as the AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, Congress president Rahul Gandhi told reporters in Amethi that she is "very capable". "We will not play in the back foot in Gujarat, or in UP. We are in politics for the public, for development. Wherever we get the opportunity, we will play on the front foot," Gandhi said.
The party also announced KC Venugopal as the organisation secretary, a post he takes from Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia as the AICC in-charge of Western UP.
Party leaders said Gandhi's foray into active politics was a decision that was taken over a month ago, and was prompted by senior leaders asking the Gandhis, "If not now, when?"
A gifted speaker with a charishma akin to grandmother Indira Gandhi, Priyanka has been taking care of her mother's constituency, Rae Bareli, over the years.
Party sources said that she is likely to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the seat, as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is retiring from active politics.
Three days before Rahul Gandhi went to UAE for an outreach exercise, Priyanka had left for a short holiday abroad. After his UAE programme, Rahul is said to have joined her for a few days. The spectre of the income tax case against Sonia and Rahul, as well as the party being left out of the SP-BSP alliance in UP had finally prompted the entry, which has been speculated for more than a year now.
A senior party leader said that the debut, which has been perceived within the party as Rahul's foray in 2004, could have been at a smoother scenario if the party was not this cornered in the state. "Last elections, there were only five seats in Eastern UP where the party candidates had more than one lakh votes. This time, while we are sure of about 10 in the region, the party will contest all of the 40 seats," said a leader.
The Congress's primary votebank are the Muslims, the upper castes and the Dalits. While the Dalit votes will go to the BSP, the Muslim and the upper caste votes will be a huge lure, and will in turn cut away into the BJP's primary vote bank of upper caste votes.
As Rahul Gandhi had signalled today that Priyanka will take a larger role beyond what is etched out for her in the next two months, a senior leader said that the party now has a second-in-command, if the Congress comes to power in 2019.
"Rahul has time and again spoken of manageable responsibility, and with this move he has made it clear that we will fight this aggressively. It was evident by the special team he sent to Chhattisgarh to guard the EVMs, and by fielding Randeep Surjewala in the Jind by-elections. The argument that there's no fire in the belly has been extinguished," said a leader.
