**EDS: IMAGE VIA @priyankagandhi POSTED ON MAY 29, 2024** Kullu: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addresses a public meeting in support of the party candidate from Mandi constituency Vikramaditya Singh for the Lok Sabha elections, in Kullu district, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (PTI Photo) (PTI05_29_2024_000185B)
Known to be strictly associated with the poll campaigns of her mother and brother, Priyanka Gandhi is presently the Congress general secretary since 2019 and was one of its star campaigners in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will now formally enter the poll fray with her brother Rahul Gandhi paving the way for her to contest from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, which he will be giving up in favour of family bastion Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh. In the works for sometime now, the decision by the Gandhi family to field the younger sibling from the Kerala seat may lead into the creation of another family bastion.
This also ends speculation and keen media interest over the question: “After all, why doesn’t Priyanka fight the fight?” Many political analysts have credited her with her party’s electoral success in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi — a reclaimed family bastion now — as well as other wins in the state. She campaigned extensively in Telangana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections, contributing with rousing speeches and her charismatic smile that is often compared to her formidable grandmother Indira Gandhi’s.
Known to strictly be associated with the poll campaigns of her mother and brother, the 52-year-old Congress leader is presently the party’s general secretary since 2019 and was one of its star campaigners in the recently concluded elections. Her newness to the poll contest aside, she comes from a line of high-profile politicians — from great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, who was the first prime minister of India, to grandmother Indira Gandhi, who was the first woman to lead India, and father Rajiv Gandhi, India’s youngest PM.
For the next six months before a bypoll is held in Wayanad, Priyanka can cash in on the pre-poll excitement created by the possibility of her taking on Narendra Modi from Varanasi. While that did not materialise, it was the first concrete evidence of her and the Gandhi family preparing the ground for her to enter the poll fray.
Rahul’s recent affirmation that his sister would have defeated the prime minister had she fought from Varanasi was more proof. Soon after, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai also said the state unit wanted her to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi against Modi but the party decided that she should campaign across the country.
The Congress once again kept everyone guessing if Priyanka will contest from Raebareli while Rahul took on former Union minister Smriti Irani in Amethi. There, too, the party decided to go another way and field Rahul from his mother’s constituency while the latter went to a family loyalist.
The clarion call for the powerhouse campaigner, however, now comes from Wayanad instead of Amethi that gave her the slogan: “Amethi ka danka, bitiya Priyanka.”
