The newly appointed Congress secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Tuesday held an informal meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who has been made in charge of the western region of the State.
Ms. Vadra was allotted a room next to her brother and party chief’s room at the Congress headquarters where the staff was seen putting up the nameplate of newly appointed general secretaries ahead of a meeting of the party’s top leadership on Thursday to review the 2019 poll preparedness.
While Mr. Scindia will formally take charge on Wednesday, it is not clear if Ms. Vadra would also do so. As The Hindu reported on Monday morning, she is scheduled to attend the meeting of all general secretaries and in-charges of various States to plan the strategy for the Lok Sabha election due in April-May.
A trip to U.P. and an official presence on social media platforms are next on the cards but there was no official word on whether or not, the Gandhis would be visiting Kumbh at Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad).
Ms. Vadra has been given charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh that not only has Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi but is also a stronghold of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrives at her brother and the party president Rahul Gandhi’s residence in New Delhi on February 5, 2019.
On January 23, the Congress made a surprise announcement to formally induct Ms. Vadra into the party by splitting UP into two regions and giving her charge of the east.
The announcement was seen as a move to enthuse the Congress cadres in U.P., where 80 seats are at stake, after the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party left out the party in a pre-poll alliance.
Until now, Ms. Vadra’s involvement with the party was limited to campaigning in Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies represented by her mother Sonia and Rahul.
Though she campaigned in the 2017 Assembly poll for the Congress-SP alliance, it didn’t fare well as the BJP swept the election.
The Congress chief has also called a meeting of State chiefs and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders on Saturday in the national capital to review preparedness.
Ahead of these meetings, Mr. Gandhi effected a series of organisational changes in State units by constituting coordination committees, manifesto, publicity and election management committees. Among the States where these new committees were announced included Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Manipur and Punjab.
