At the time when Congressmen were pushing their entire strength to revive the Party here in this largest state having maximum 80 Lok Sabha seats, introducing Priyanka Gandhi into active politics and appointing her as AICC general secretary incharge of UP (east) seems to have proved a shot in the arm for the workers and leaders.
The morale of the workers and leaders also went high as along with Priyanka Gandhi, they also get another youth leader, Jyotiraditya Scindia as AICC general secretary, UP (West). They were now confident that these two youth scions of the Party would facilitate the Party to touch similar heights which they witnessed during their golden days till late 80s here in Uttar Pradesh. ``Bringing in Priyanka Gandhi is not just for the coming Parliament elections but she would be the face of the Party here in UP during Assembly elections in 2022”, reached state president Raj Babbar, who was here on Wednesday to celebrate marriage ceremony of his son. Besides Babbar, many other senior leaders including Pramod Tewari, Vinod Mishra, Siddharth Priya Srivastava, Virendra Madan, Amarnath Agarwal welcome coming of Priyanka Gandhi into active politics and said that now the Party would not look back and make a comeback in UP in coming Parliament elections.
Interestingly, to take the lead in the 2019 Parliament elections, Congress had reportedly planned to counter the Akhiles Yadav-Mayawati joint press conference by holding a similar press meet of Rahul Gandhi-Prianka Gandhi- Jyotiraditya likely on February 4 and later they will launch campaign jointly in a huge rally likely to be organised here at Ramabai Maidan on Feburary 10. This will probably the second time when both Rahul and Priyanka will be hosting a joint press conference. In 2004, Priyanka was instrumental in introducing Rahul to the media in Amethi and thereafter he contested the elections for the first time in 2004 from Amethi, once represented by his father Rajiv Gandhi.
Congress sources here on Wednesday suggest that Rahul and Priyanka could also inaugurate the newly renovated media centre at UPCC office at Lucknow’s Mall Road and will also lay the foundation stone for an auditorium on the Congress office premises in Lucknow on February 4. Before that, Rahul Gandhi is slated to attend a public meeting in Patna on February 3. Apart from this, sources also reveal that senior Congress leader Tariq Anwar might be given the charge of central Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile hours after announcement of Priyanka joining active politics, posters comparing Priyanka with her grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi came up in parts of UP. Some compared her to Goddess Durga while another in Lucknow UPCC office, says, “Indira Is Back” and also thanks Rahul for bringing Priyanka in active politics. The leaders burst crackers and distributed sweets to celebrate the occasion. Priyanka has played crucial roles in nursing Congress bastions Amethi and Rae Bareli in the past. In 2014, while Rahul and Sonia Gandhi campaigned in the entire nation, Priyanka took charge of Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Before that, in the Lok Sabha elections of 1999, Priyanka helped her mother Sonia Gandhi win the two crucial seats of these constituencies by campaigning on her behalf. She stayed in Amethi for two weeks. Sonia had won the constituency by a huge margin.