The newly appointed Uttar Pradesh (East) General Secretary of Congress Priyanka Gandhi is likely to take oath and full time charge as the party’s office-bearer in the next couple of days in the national Capital after her return from abroad on Sunday late night.
AICC sources said a meeting of Priyanka with senior party leaders including her sibling and Congress President Rahul Gandhi is scheduled on Monday after that her next course of action will be decided.
Sources said that reports ythat Rahul and Priyanka will hold a Press meet in Lucknow after taking a dip in Kumbh at Prayagraj on Mauni Amawasya day on February 4 may be rescheduled.
AICC sources had said that the brother-sister duo will launch the Lok Sabha poll campaign through a road show in al Uttar Pradesh in the first week of February. “This was merely speculations since the announcement of Priyanka’s plunge into politics. Priyanla’s programmes will be decided only after her return to the country during the first week of February,” AICC sources said.
Sources said that the decision to have two PCC chiefs - East UP and West UP- similar to the bifurcation of charges of General Secretaries is also to be taken soon. Along with Priyanka, senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has been assigned to take over as General Secretary Incharge of UP West.
Congress sources said that in all probabilities the State Congress would see two party chiefs and the incumbent PCC chief Raj Babbar may be given a different role to look into the party affairs in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh combined with other Hindi belt state like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh.
After Priyanka and Scindia’s takeover, Rahul will hold 13 rallies in 13 zones in Uttar
Pradesh this month to sound the bugle for the election campaign to make it a three-cornered fight in the State. After the Congress was left out of the BSP-SP alliance in, Rahul decided to launch an aggressive campaign in the State.
AICC sources said in each zone, six Lok Sabha seats will be identified and the Gandhi scion will hold one rally in each zone. There are 80 Lok Sabha seats in the State and in the present Lok Sabha BJP has 72 MPs and Congress only two.