Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took charge as the AICC general secretary in-charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Priyanka took the Congressmen by surprise as she arrived at the party office unannounced. There was no prior information on when she would take charge, and there was even speculation that it would happen on Thursday.
As Priyanka emerged through the gate connecting Congress headquarters with 10 Janpath, the residence of her mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, at around 4 pm, a roar of excitement went up among the party workers.
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The event had its share of drama and excitement.
A media briefing by senior party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi was on when Priyanka entered. Soon the media persons deserted the press conference. Singhvi's briefing came to a premature halt and he remarked that the reporters had to go to greener pastures.
Priyanka spent around 20 minutes at the Congress office. She met a few party functionaries in her office which was cordoned off by personnel belonging to the Special Protection Group.
Among the party workers who met Priyanka was Haji Mehboob Khan Bugge Mian, general secretary of Amethi district Congress.
The 62-year-old said he was in the crowd of party workers who rushed towards Priyanka as she walked into her office. He said that she recognised him and asked the SPG to let him into her office.
"She recognised me immediately. She remarked that she has seen me in Amethi since the time she would go there as a youngster with her father," Bugge Mian said.
"She enquired about my welfare and said she will soon come and meet us in Amethi," he said.
As Priyanka left, she stopped her car at the gates to briefly speak to the workers. She smiled and waved to them as the car exited the Congress office.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has been made general secretary in charge of Western Uttar Pradesh and who shares office space with Priyanka, took charge of his new assignment.
Meanwhile, to questions raised by the media about the allegations of corruption against her husband Robert Vadra, Priyanka said that she stood by him. "I have to stand by my family," she said.
Minutes before she arrived at the Congress office, she had accompanied her husband as he went to the Enforcement Directorate's office to be questioned in connection with allegations of money laundering.
About her new assignment, she merely said that she wanted to thank Congress president Rahul Gandhi for giving her the opportunity.
