There has, for long, been a clamour within the Congress for Priyanka Vadra to take the political plunge. But she has so far restricted her political work to the constituencies of her mother, Sonia Gandhi, and brother Rahul Gandhi.
“I am not interested in politics; politics is all about serving people and that is what I am doing,” she maintained.
Some of the slogans heard in Uttar Pradesh today show how eager grass-root workers are for her political entry. Here are two samples: Amethi ka danka, bitiya Priyanka (The clarion call from Amethi is for daughter Priyanka); Har har danka, ghar ghar danka behen Priyanka (From every house there is clarion call for sister Priyanka).
The workers are enthused that Priyanka has made a splash by helping salvage the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance, which was on the brink of collapse.
Significantly, the Congress has not underplayed her involvement this time. Rather, the party is celebrating it, and has named her a “star campaigner”.
“It is wrong to suggest that lightweights were dealing on the behalf of the Congress party. Discussions were at the highest level between the CM of UP, general secretary in charge of state affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad and Priyanka Gandhi,” tweeted Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“Work on this alliance had been going on for the past couple of months,” said a Congress leader.
Things took a dramatic turn after January 1, when Akhilesh dethroned his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and took over the reins of the Samajwadi Party. The alliance talks were accelerated, and it was Congress leader Kapil Sibal who appeared before the Election Commission to argue that the Akhilesh Yadav faction be given the Samajwadi Party’s bicycle symbol.
Friction started after Akhilesh got the symbol. He announced Samajwadi Party candidates in the winning seats of the Congress. This irked state Congress leaders.
While the Congress demanded 125 seats, Akhilesh was not willing to grant more than 100. The stalemate continued till January 21, when Priyanka called up Akhilesh and sealed the deal: 298 seats for the Samajwadi Party; 105 for the Congress. Local leaders were kept out of the loop.
Now, Priyanka has another task at hand—finalising the candidates for the 10 assembly constituencies in Raebareli and Amethi, which are Sonia’s and Rahul’s Lok Sabha constituencies.
Currently, the talk is that Priyanka will make her electoral debut in the 2019 general elections. Well, that could mean stepping into mama’s shoes.
