With local leaders and poll strategist Prashant Kishor consistently speaking about the need to field a chief ministerial candidate before the 2017 Assembly polls, the Congress top brass is reportedly thinking on the lines of announcing a strong election campaign committee, which may include Priyanka Gandhi.
Sources said that Priyanka will be this time “finally” entering active politics through the UP polls. They said that she will be campaigning beyond the Nehru-Gandhi pocket borough i.e. Rae Bareli and Amethi whenever needed. Priyanka has so far campaigned in the two constituencies represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi.
Sources also said that a formal announcement on her role and campaign will be done soon. The party leadership, sources said, is waiting for vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s to return to India, who is currently outside the country on a short trip.
Sources said that Priyanka has been attending the party’s strategy meeting for UP polls along with Ghulam Nabi Azad, the new Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.
It is also believed that Azad had submitted a report to the both party president and Priyanka regarding the latter’s role in the polls.
Priyanka’s office will be in Anand Bhavan in Allahabad, the ancestral home of the Nehru-Gandhi Family, which is now a museum, sources said.
Azad had earlier publically favoured Priyanka campaigning outside Amethi and Rae Bareli for the assembly polls. “I do hope that she will definitely campaign in some other places as per time available to her,” he had said.
Election strategist Prashant Kishor too had suggested that Priyanka Gandhi should be made the party’s face for the UP polls.
Satyadev Tripathi, chairman of UP Congress communication department said: “No decision has been taken yet but the fact remains that party workers want strong faces to be a part of the election campaign committee. There is a growing demand for Priyanka Gandhi to campaign across the state. But all these decisions are to be taken by the party high-command.”
