Priyanka's campaign nod gives fillip to UP Congress

After she reviewed UP strategy along with Rahul Gandhi and selected senior leaders

The Congress got a fillip in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh (UP) with Priyanka Gandhi agreeing to campaign for the party ahead of the assembly polls early next year.

After she reviewed UP strategy along with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and selected senior leaders, state unit chief Raj Babbar and poll campaign in charge Sanjay Singh said Priyanka had agreed to campaign for the party but the details were yet to be worked out.

"She has agreed to our demand and will play a major role in UP campaign. The details are yet to be worked out," Babbar said.

"All the party workers and leaders in UP wanted her to campaign," said Singh.

Hitherto, Priyanka had restricted herself to campaigning in the Gandhi family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli but would step out into other areas to seek votes for respective party candidates in the coming elections.

Speculation over her campaign role had soared on October 24, when Priyanka for the first time had chaired a UP strategy meet in the absence of Rahul Gandhi.

Party insiders said that she might campaign in limited constituencies where the party hopes to win.

Among the voters, Priyanka's strong resemblance to her grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is often talked about whenever she spends time among people.

On November 21, she will attend the opening of an exhibition on the life of Indira Gandhi at Swaraj Bhavan, the ancestral house of the Nehrus in Allahabad, along with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Old timers still recall how Priyanka's powerful oratory demolished the political rivals with her sharp and witty comments.

In 1999, when her uncle Arun Nehru was contesting on a BJP ticket against Congress nominee Satish Sharma from Rae Bareli, Priyanka made an emotional appeal to the voters asking them how could they allow a person, who had stabbed her father Rajiv Gandhi in the back, enter the area. Arun lost the polls despite BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee campaigning for him.

The same year, she sealed the fate of BJP leader Sushma Swaraj who was contesting against Sonia from Bellary in Karnataka. Priyanka's appeal in Kannada and the way she broke security cordon to mingle with local women dented Swaraj's campaign beyond repair.

During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, she countered BJP Prime Ministerial nominee Narendra Modi's jibe comparing the Congress to a 128 year old woman by asking the voters if she looked like an old woman. She also attacked the BJP, who had been targeting her husband Robert Vadra over his alleged controversial land deals forcing the BJP managers to recast their campaign.

But if the Vadra tag would prove to be a limitation for her needs to be watched as many in the party feel that Priyanka's fire power should be saved for the 2019 national polls rather than deploy her in the 2017 UP elections.