Shameless sycophancy in the Congress continues as the party officially appointed a member of Nehru-Gandhi family and wife of controversial business mogul Robert Vadra, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as the General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh East ahead of crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Over-enthusiastic supporters of her said, “Priyanka Gandhi aandhi hai, doosri Indira Gandhi hai.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra appointed Congress General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh East. pic.twitter.com/rkl57AFVzw
— ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2019
ANI first with reactions from Amethi about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joining active politics. They say "Priyanka Gandhi aandhi hai, doosri Indira Gandhi hai" pic.twitter.com/g14wLURuWj
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) January 23, 2019
It is a crucial region from the electoral politics point of view. It goes on to indicate that while the party is looking for safe seats for Rahul Gandhi, his sister, Priyanka Vadra, is taking a challenging role. Eastern Uttar Pradesh is the region where she will directly lock horns with the BJP stalwarts such as PM Modi and CM Yogi.
The story isn’t just that Priyanka Gandhi is formally entering politics. It is that she has chosen the one region most tough for Congress: Eastern UP where she directly takes on Modi & Yogi. This kind of go-for-broke risk-taking is uncharacteristic of Cong/Gandhi family
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) January 23, 2019
So if Mr Modi is going to fight the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi again, the Congress strategy to battle that will be drawn by Priyanka Gandhi who is now the general secretary for UP-East
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) January 23, 2019
The party has been giving signals that very soon Priyanka Vadra will take a crucial role to play in 2019 general elections. Last year, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid in an interview with Dainik Bhaskar said, “Priyanka Gandhi is a game changer as she has a big role behind the curtain.” He had hinted that she has been working behind the curtain in Rae Bareilly and Amethi and her role was hitherto limited, but ahead of 2019 General Elections, she will play a larger role. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra till date has managed to steer away from active politics and has only campaigned for her mother and brother and some other Congress leaders.
There was a lot of speculation about this earlier as well. Many Congress leaders and workers since 2014 have pointed out that Priyanka Vadra could be better suited for the role of the Congress President than Rahul Gandhi. Voices have been raised in her favour by the vote banks of the Congress as well. The incompetency of Rahul Gandhi has led to the elevation of Priyanka Vadra and overall she is considered as more deserving than her brother in this regard. Her active participation in the politics would enthuse the cadres, which for a long time has been demanding Priyanka Vadra to join the Congress party officially. It will also placate the cadres and leaders of the Congress party who are angry with the inept leadership of Rahul Gandhi. Her entry into active politics would completely do away with dissidence within the party. Everyone within the party would like to be in the good books of the Gandhi family.
There are also things which can go against Priyanka, for example, her husband has been involved in various controversies and scams. She would be carrying the burden of misdeeds of her husband and opposition parties would definitely make political capital out of it. And also gone are those days when people used to get swayed away by the Gandhi surname. India of today is different. The elevation of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is not likely to have a ripple effect on a large section of the voters. Only time will tell whether the recent move of the Congress party is a masterstroke or a suicidal one by exposing the canard of Priyanka Vadra being the secret and powerful weapon of the Congress.
