Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Joins Politics, Gets Key UP Post Ahead Of Polls

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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, 47, has always confined her role in politics to the constituencies of her brother Rahul and mother Sonia Gandhi, Amethi and Raebareli, till now

NEW DELHI: 

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's plunge into active politics to galvanise ranks
2. She has been appointed in-charge of Uttar Pradesh east
3. Jyotiraditya Scindia will be Congress in-charge of western UP

 

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the sister of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, has finally taken the plunge into politics, just months ahead of the national election due by May. Often dubbed the "Brahmastra" or the mythical ultimate weapon of the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will debut as the party's general secretary in charge of the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, which pitches her against the ruling BJP's top two mascots, Prime Minister Narendra Modi - whose constituency Varanasi will be in her share - and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"I have not sent Priyanka and Jyotiraditya for just two months. I have sent them to take the Congress' ideology forward in Uttar Pradesh," Rahul Gandhi told reporters.

47-year-old Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who reminds many of her grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi, for both her charisma and the stunning likeness, is seen as a natural in politics but she has confined herself to the constituencies of her brother Rahul and mother Sonia Gandhi - Amethi and Raebareli - till now. In national and state elections since 2004, the mother-of-two has campaigned exhaustively in the family seats where the Gandhis enjoy almost royal status.

Sources say her appointment to a key position reflects the Congress's realisation that in a politically vital state like Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 parliamentary seats and is considered the route to power at the centre, the party needs to up its game and cannot afford just one in-charge. It is a huge gamble for the Congress, a sign that the party is all for aggressively taking on PM Modi and the BJP in the coming election.

The Congress dropped the Priyanka bombshell in the third para of a press statement that also announced that Jyotiraditya Scindia will be in charge of western UP. The giant announcement came as Rahul Gandhi began a two-day visit to Amethi. Priyanka Gandhi is in New York and is expected to return on February 1.

Congress leaders say Priyanka Gandhi's arrival in party politics will galvanise the ranks that have been demoralised by the Mayawati-Akhilesh Yadav move to form an alliance in UP for the national election without the Congress, which has been pitching for a grand opposition alliance to take on the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi commented that the BJP was "panicking".

The ruling party has been repeatedly targeting Priyanka Gandhi's husband Robert Vadra, a businessman being investigated for allegedly corrupt land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan. Robert Vadra congratulated his wife in a Facebook post: "Congratulations P... always by your side in every phase of your life."

Priyanka Gandhi was always active in decision-making and played a key role in the alliance with Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election. She also reportedly oversaw the party meeting in which her older brother was crowned Congress president.

 

The BJP shrugged off the Congress announcement. "Rahul Gandhi failed so they need Priyanka as a crutch. Can't they find anyone beyond that family?" sneered BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

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[WigsandThighs]

IG2 vacchesthundhi royy...mamata maya andharu pakkaku 10geyandi 

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As Priyanka Gandhi enters active politics, these two parameters will measure her success or failure

This is first time that Priyanka Gandhi will hold an organisational position in the party.

 

The Congress party cadre in Uttar Pradesh sees the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into active politics — as the general secretary for Eastern UP — as a game changer ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, for which the party has been left out of the SP-BSP alliance.

 

Priyanka will take charge next month. Before that, she is likely to hold a meeting with party leaders from UP in Delhi to assess the political situation on the ground after the SP and BSP came together to take on the BJP.

As per the Congress’s organisational structure, Eastern UP has 40 Lok Sabha constituencies. These include Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi, and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s home turf Gorakhpur. Over a half dozen Union Ministers have been elected from seats in Eastern UP.

The Gandhi family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli, the constituencies of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi respectively, are also part of the Congress’s Eastern UP regional unit. Immediately after Wednesday’s announcement, party leaders in UP had begun to speculate on the possibility of Priyanka contesting the Lok Sabha election for the Rae Bareli seat, replacing her mother.

Phulpur, also in this unit, has been a strong Congress bastion in the past, having elected Jawaharlal Nehru and Vijayalaxmi Pandit. However, the Congress has not won the seat after the Lok Sabha elections of 1984. In the byelection of 2018, the SP candidate won the seat with the support of the BSP.

This is first time that Priyanka will hold an organisational position in the party. She has visited UP in the run-up to elections in the past, but has confined herself to Rae Bareli and Amethi, where the local people identify with her as the daughter of the Gandhi family. There have been repeated demands for several years from Congressmen and Congresswomen, in both UP and elsewhere, that she enter active politics.

Priyanka has been a star campaigner for the Congress in her mother’s and brother’s constituencies. She has been taking charge of organisational meetings in both Rae Bareli and Amethi, and had campaigned in these Lok Sabha constituencies in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and in the Assembly segments in these two districts ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections. According to sources, Priyanka had an important role in the making of the SP-Congress alliance and in the seat-sharing arrangement between the parties for the 2017 elections. The alliance, however, faced an embarrassing defeat in the polls.

With Priyanka’s appointment, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party have signalled that they are willing and able to make an unhesitating, confident, and no-holds barred charge in UP. She will travel across the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the region, freeing up Rahul to campaign and attend organisational meetings elsewhere in the state and the country.

 

The Congress feels that Priyanka will be able to capitalise on the latent goodwill that the Nehru-Gandhi family continues to retain in many parts of UP. She is widely seen as a natural campaigner and crowd-puller who connects easily with large sections of voters. Her physical resemblance with her grandmother Indira Gandhi has been pointed out repeatedly, and the Congress will be hoping for a rekindling of the party’s old emotional appeal.

For Priyanka, this is a crucial and challenging assignment. The Congress has been abandoned by the other anti-BJP forces in the state, and if Priyanka is able to deliver, to an extent at least, new opportunities can open up for both her and her party in UP and across India.

As Priyanka takes up her assignment, the two obvious parameters to measure her success or failure will be (1) whether, and to what extent, she is able to dent the BJP’s upper caste votebank, and (2) how she is able to impact the chances of the SP-BSP alliance. Initial answers to both questions will begin to emerge as the campaign picks up in the coming weeks, and will be visible in the response of voters as well as in the reactions of the SP-BSP and BJP. It is important to remember that contesting the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll separately last year, the Congress had cut into the upper caste votes of BJP, and played a role in the victory of the SP-BSP combine.

 

[Android_Halwa]

Hehe...Priyanka Gandhi is another pappu

big dud...Indira Gandhi ni chusi votes vese rojulu epudo poinayi

Sp-BSP votes ni split cheyadaniki thappa paisa ki panikiradu