Congress star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for the first time held chaupals to take first hand account of problems directly from the mouth of the public of her mother Parliament constituency in Rae Bareli on Monday.
At the time of filing this report, she is holding meeting with the newly nominated leaders of District Congress Committee to discuss strategy to further strengthen the Party in the constituency. She also inaugurated a solar energy plant at Sairaini. Starting her two-day visit on Monday morning, Priyanka made surprise visit to many villages to inspect the development works like her mother did. Besides she also hold a ‘ Janata Darbar’ to interact with the people hailing form Sairaini, Soro and lalganj areas. Priyanka made inspection of around 15 villages in Saraini assembly constituency and other adjoining areas, including Bhojpur.
On Wednesday she will first chair a meeting of the presidents of the party in Gram Panchayats, Nyay Panchayats and Block panchayats and later meet the locals during the first ever Janata Darshan at Bhua Mau guest house. During the past two years, Priyanka was engaged in revamping the party organisation in Rae Bareli even though she started
coming to her mother’s parliamentary constituency since 1999 for campaigning. Ms Vadra accompanying her mother to Rae Bareli for a day on October 8 had surprised the UP government by suddenly laying the foundation stone for AIIMS. The act of the Mother-daughter duo had irked the Samajwadi Party government.
Earlier, the speculations were high that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the star campaigner of the Congress during the last several elections in the state, is likely to enter into active politics. There are enough indications that Priyanka could contest the coming lok Sabha elections replacing her mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli though there was no official word on it. Priyanka had worked intensively to strengthen the Congress organisation in Rae Bareli and even took interviews to select the district party office-bearers. She has now also been given the task to strengthen the party organisation in the adjoining Amethi district, the parliamentary constituency of her brother and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
In other development, Sonia Gandhi has also nominated Priyanka as her representative in the district monitoring committee which oversees the developmental works in the constituency. According to sources, Priyanka is likely to step into the shoes of her mother owing to Sonia’s ill-health. There is also a speculation that Rahul Gandhi could move to Rae Bareli and his sister would contest from Amethi, as Rae Bareli is deemed to be the Prime Minister’s seat. “Priyanka’s increasing visits to Rae Bareli in the recent times and her sparing out time to go to Amethi is an enough indication, which shows that the brother - sister duo could contest the general elections this time,” the sources added.
The AICC vice-president had in the past asked his sister to introduce the system of interview to select the district committee in his Amethi parliamentary constituency just as she did for the Rae Bareli. She has also started meeting the people of Rae Bareli in Delhi and during the past two years she had visited Rae Bareli for nine times for organisational purposes. Politicians close to the Gandhi family too said that it would not be a surprise if Ms Vadra replaces her mother in Rae Bareli.