Will it be a package deal?

What Priyanka's entry into active politics means for the Congress and why Robert Vadra might be calling attention to himself

In Uttar Pradesh, especially eastern Uttar Pradesh, everyone is called bhaiya – whether you’re the baby of the family or the eldest. But bhaiyas are always men. So it is a matter of mystery why Priyanka Gandhi is called bhaiyaji by constituents of Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Here’s why. When Rahul and Priyanka were children and used to visit the constituency with their grandmother Indira or father Rajiv, both had very short hair. So much so that most constituents thought for a long time that Priyanka was a boy. Hence the sobriquet bhaiyaji, that has stuck till today when she is the mother of two children.

She looks like her grandmother. But is she like her? Indira Gandhi always took care of those who had stood by her whether they had won elections or lost them (see Pranab Mukherjee’s account of his relations with Indira Gandhi) and never forgot a slight. Priyanka doesn’t think she is either ruthless or vindictive. She is known to have told friends, “you think I’m like my grandmother? Wait till you’ve had dealings with Rahul”.  This much is true. Priyanka values forgiveness. That was the motive behind her visit to the prison in Tamil Nadu where the person convicted of killing her father, Nalini, is incarcerated. She said she wanted to understand why her father had to be killed. In the 1999 election, when the man thought to be behind the Bofors scandal, Arun Nehru, who abandoned Rajiv Gandhi to defect to the VP Singh-led Janata Dal and later the Bharatiya Janata Party, contested from Rae Bareli she asked voters only one memorable question: “The man who stabbed my father in the back — how did you let such a man even enter Rae Bareli?”

And yet, the same Priyanka Gandhi made up with the family when Nehru was on his deathbed. Priyanka took charge of the cremation when he died in 2013. It was the Nehru-Gandhi grandson Raihan who lit Arun Nehru’s pyre. The extended family means a lot to her: When she went to New York (to be by her daughter Miraya’s side as she recovered from a knee procedure) she stayed with cousin Radhika, Arun Nehru’s daughter.

She was educated at the Welhams Girls’ School and that’s where she was when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Since then she has yearned for stability and a ‘normal’ life for her family and her children. Rahul Gandhi said there was never any question about her joining active politics but she didn’t want to jump into the fray until her children were ‘settled’. Now both are at university and are considered to be settled.

But this is not to say she wasn’t active in politics. Former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu says quite openly that it was Priyanka who brought him in politics. This is endorsed by Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh, who has no reason to be happy to have had Sidhu foisted on him (hockey legend Pargat Singh was also brought to the Congress by Priyanka, Amrinder says). She was the one who pushed and pushed Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh and Dimple Yadav to enter into a partnership ahead of the UP Assembly elections. Many in the Rahul Gandhi camp feel this was tantamount to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: Rahul and the Congress were just beginning to assert themselves in UP when they were trapped into an alliance. Anyway, things bounced back soon after and it was Priyanka who made seating, logistics and other arrangements for the big day when Rahul took over as Congress President.

In the last one month, the Congress system has seen many upheavals. Those who were hoping younger people would be promoted and the old guard pensioned off have been disappointed. It is Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot who have bounced back and many insecurities have been laid to rest. And now there’s another disruption in the form of Priyanka. This could even extend to Robert Vadra who has never hidden his political ambitions and was quick to claim proprietorial rights over Priyanka via congratulations delivered over Twitter (ask yourself if you would take to Twitter to congratulate your wife on her promotion — unless your objective was to call attention to yourself). While the average Congressman is loyal to Priyanka — and maybe just a little smitten by her — many would be reluctant at having to defend a package deal. Most have noted speculation that it is from Moradabad, Vadra’s home town and Priyanka’s sasural that Rahul Gandhi will start his election campaign — and maybe Priyanka will share the stage with him. The coming weeks and months should be interesting for the new equations they reveal.