While the Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were at the centre stage at the party’s 84th plenary session held at Indira Gandhi stadium in the national Capital, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was handling the stage management and engaged in fine-tuning of speeches delivered by the Congress leaders.
It was Priyanka Gandhi’s idea that youth leaders in the party should be allowed to moderate the session. That’s was the reason that young leaders such as Nadeem Javed, Sushmita Dev and Ragini Nayak were given a chance to conduct the session along with senior leader Mukul Wasnik. In the past, party veterans like Janardan Dwivedi, Ahmed Patel or Ghulam Nabi Azad had conducted AICC plenary sessions.
Sources said that Priyanka has been holding regular discussions with senior Congress leaders at the Congress war room at 15 Gurudwara Rakabganj Road to make the two-day plenary session a fruitful and successful exercise.
A Congress leader said on the condition of anonymity that even sitting arrangement inside the stadium was finalised by Priyanka Gandhi. “There was a concerted attempt to promote “brand Rahul”.
Besides, it was an effort to connect with the workers and the common people in general, the party this time also introduced panel discussions on various issues, including one on contemporary media.