Amidst speculation that Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, may take up a significant role in the party soon, Priyanka on Friday dismissed such reports and statements by Congressmen as “baseless rumours”.
“The constant conjecture about my assuming various posts in the Congress party and the manner in which this issue is brought up at opportune moments is incorrect. I would be very grateful to all concerned if they desisted from encouraging such baseless rumours,” Priyanka said in a brief statement to PTI.
Priyanka’s remarks put the lid on speculations that she could formally join the party either in the capacity of a general secretary in the AICC or the chief of Uttar Pradesh Congress.
The speculation of Priyanka’s larger role in the party was also interpreted in the media as “diminishing” role for Rahul, an interpretation which was stoutly rejected by the party leaders in public.
Senior party members during the last few days have been making statements about Priyanka’s major role in the party. While AICC spokesperson Shobha Oza said that the party wants all three members of Gandhi family to take leadership role, senior Congress leader and a Gandhi family loyalist Oscar Fernandes said that Priyanka should have a more active role in the Congress” and that she should take up an “important responsibility”.
A few months ago, a top leader had indicated that Priyanka’s role would not be of replacing Rahul but supplementing him in running the party. A banner put out in Allahabad a couple of days back read “Congress ka Moon, Priyanka is coming soon.
Priyanka Gandhi, who for a long time confined her role in party affairs to Rae Bareli and Amethi parliamentary seats represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi, who is the party president and brother Rahul Gandhi, vice president of Congress.
When Priyanka had attended some of the party meetings at her brother’s residence in the run-up to the lok Sabha polls, the party then too had downplayed it saying it was just to bring some coordination about the rallies and visits of Sonia and Rahul.
When a similar speculation about her larger role in the party had gained momentum a month before the general elections, the then Union Minister Shashi Tharoor had said, “Congress has a president and a vice-president, who is not only functioning but also active... There is no vacancy at the moment. We have a president and a vice-president and they are doing a job”.
The chorus to bring Priyanka in the party for a larger role has all the more grown after the worst-ever poll debacle of Congress in this lok Sabha elections, where its tally came to 44 from 206 in 2009. Soon after the results were out, Kerala leader and former Minister K V Thomas had said that Priyanka should assume a larger role and work with Rahul as a team.