Congress on Monday appointed former Chief Ministers Bhupesh Baghel and Ashok Gehlot as AICC senior observers for Rae Bareli and Amethi Parliamentary constituencies, respectively. Party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra reached Uttar Pradesh to spearhead the campaign in Rae Bareli and Amethi, and camp in these Parliamentary constituencies from Monday to ensure the party’s victory in the two high-profile seats.

She met party workers in Raebareli to bolster Rahul Gandhi’s campaign from the family bastion. Rahul is pitted against BJP leader Dinesh Pratap Singh from Rae Bareli. Rae Bareli and Amethi will go to vote in the fifth phase of election on May 20.

Priyanka Gandhi will be holding hundreds of ‘nukkad sabhas’, meetings and door-to-door campaign programmes, the sources said. “The centre will be Rae Bareli where she will be stationed at a guest house. From booth management to outreach, everything would be handled by her,” the source said.

Strong foundations that Feroze Gandhi laid in Rae Bareli were later nurtured and strengthened by his wife and former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who won the seat in 1967, 1971 and 1980, followed by friends and members of the Gandhi family.

In Amethi, a non-Gandhi family member is in the fray after 25 years to take on incumbent BJP MP Smriti Irani. Irani had defeated Rahul Gandhi by more than 55,000 votes in 2019 in Amethi, while in Rae Bareli Sonia Gandhi defeated BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh by more than 1,67,000 votes.

Sharma was the key person who had looked after the two prestigious constituencies and been a representative of the Gandhis in the two key seats.