CONGRESS OLD-TIMERS in Amethi still remember the time when a young Priyanka came to the Gandhi family pocket borough with her mother Sonia in 1999. She was there to help Sonia with her debut campaign. They talk about how she ably assisted her mother and displayed a maturity beyond her years.
“Amethi ka danka, bitiya Priyanka” (Amethi’s drum, daughter Priyanka)—the slogan greeted her wherever she toured the constituency with her mother. A somewhat nervous Sonia found her rock in Priyanka as she took her electoral plunge.
Priyanka’s connection with the Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies only grew in the following years, and it was widely believed that she would inherit Amethi, which elected her father Rajiv Gandhi to the Lok Sabha four times. Instead, her brother Rahul was fielded from the constituency in the 2004 general elections. She accompanied Rahul to Amethi to introduce him to the party workers and the people.
Ever since, there has been a persistent demand for Priyanka, who is widely seen in the Congress as a natural politician and who is compared to her grandmother Indira Gandhi, to enter active politics. The demand grew louder following the Congress’s humiliating performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the party won just 44 seats.
If it was Priyanka who introduced Rahul to Amethi in 2004, 15 years later, before another Lok Sabha election, Rahul, as party president, has entrusted Priyanka with the crucial charge of winning Uttar Pradesh for the party.
The announcement—that Priyanka, 47, has been made general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh East—might have come as a surprise. But ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, there was a buzz in the party that it might unleash its brahmastra, or ultimate weapon, as party workers call her. This would, they believed, maximise the party’s chances of defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. While it is unclear if Priyanka would replace Sonia, who is apparently not keeping well, in the Rae Bareli seat, the longtime question of when will she join politics has finally been answered.
Priyanka will handle the eastern half of the state; Jyotiraditya Scindia, who played an important role in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections but lost out to Kamal Nath in the chief ministerial race, would take care of the western half as newly appointed general secretary. Rahul told reporters in Amethi that the appointments meant that the party was going all in. “I am very happy that my sister, who is very capable, will work with me,” he said. “It gives me a lot of happiness personally.”
Full house: Though it is unclear if Priyanka Gandhi would take over from Sonia in Rae Bareli, her political plunge will surely be a big boost to Rahul | PTI
While Priyanka’s debut is significant in itself, it is important to note that Rahul is using her as his trump card to try and revive the party in Uttar Pradesh. A leader close to Rahul said that he has been trying to do so for a decade. The Congress, on its own, last ruled UP almost 30 years ago.
Rahul’s previous efforts included a high-voltage campaign for the 2007 assembly elections, a major dalit outreach by dining and staying with them, the announcement of a special package for drought-hit Bundelkhand region and the appointment of election strategist Prashant Kishor. Despite going full throttle for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party won only Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh said the party has taken two important decisions in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. One was to contest all seats in the state, and the other was to put Priyanka in charge. “This is a befitting reply to all those who discounted the Congress’s strength,” he said. Recently, the Congress was kept out when the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party announced an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. They even called the Congress a liability.
Added Singh: “This is an opportunity for the party to regain its lost glory, and you will see how Priyanka’s appeal will cut through the politics of caste and religion.”
As in-charge of eastern UP, Priyanka would have to directly take the fight to the seats of Modi (Varanasi) and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (Gorakhpur). Beyond the situation on ground, these fights would be amplified on news channels and social media, which thrive on such high-profile contests. Priyanka’s challenge would be to take on Modi and Adityanath on issues of development, employment and farm crisis.
“It is natural that with her appointment as general secretary, the alarm bells would have rung for our political opponents,” said Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. “She is extremely popular and an extremely efficient leader.”
Professor Ram Kishore Shastri, a political expert in Amethi, has observed Priyanka for the past three decades, and believes in her political acumen as much as in her charm. “It is a very good decision,” he said. “It will re-energise the Congress worker who is present in every block, every district. The Congress, which is omnipresent in the state but is lying dormant, will be re-energised.” He also hopes that leaders who jumped ship to rival parties would now return.
He recalled an incident that brought out Priyanka’s natural capacity to connect with people. Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka had gone to Allahabad to immerse Rajiv’s ashes in the Ganga. When they returned to the banks, Sonia and Rahul got into the car. But Priyanka walked towards the massive crowd that had gathered to pay homage to her father, and thanked them with folded hands. “The party sees her as a true inheritor of her grandmother’s legacy, and she will have an impact on the party’s fortunes,” said Shastri.
Priyanka’s importance in the party’s decision-making process was evident when she emerged as a crucial back-room strategist for Rahul in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. She had, after persistent nudging from close family friend and technocrat-turned-politician Sam Pitroda, stepped out of her earlier role of only managing Amethi and Rae Bareli. She even sent her two children, Raihan and Miraya, to boarding schools in Uttarakhand to devote more time to politics.
Since then, she has been Rahul’s most important adviser and a key person in the party’s decision-making process. In 2017, she had persuaded Sheila Dikshit to become the party’s chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, it was her direct outreach to Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav that made him agree to an alliance with the Congress for the same elections. Also, after the recent assembly elections victory, she was involved in the process of choosing the chief ministers for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Last March, Priyanka had micro-managed the show at the party’s plenary session, where Rahul was elected Congress president. To send out the message that the stage had been thrown open to the youth, she did away with the seating of leaders on the stage. She also supervised the fumigation drive at the venue as the attendees had complained of mosquitoes.
But while the current announcement could be a classic disrupter, it might not translate into electoral success. Especially with just two months left for the Lok Sabha elections.
While it is believed that the Congress still has a lot of goodwill among the people in the state, cutting through the established politics of caste and religion will be a daunting task for Priyanka. So far, she has not had to prove her leaderships skills through electoral returns; she was campaign manager for Sonia and Rahul in the family bastions. Now, however, she will be in charge of about 40 parliamentary seats. And there are challenges galore. She will have to find suitable candidates (the party does not have a strong state leadership), draw up the election strategy, getting the necessary funds, and deal with the aggressive campaign of her rivals. She will also have to contend with the possibility of the BSP and the SP, as a reaction to the Congress contesting all seats, putting up candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli. They had earlier promised to keep off the two Gandhi seats.
Priyanka will also have to be prepared to be the target of political opponents, who could shift their focus from Rahul. The BJP is expected to target her Achilles’ heel, her husband Robert Vadra, who is embroiled in multiple corruption cases, while also attacking the Gandhis for their dynasty politics.
Also, there will be comparisons between Priyanka and Rahul. There have been past instances where Congress leaders, not too happy with Rahul’s way of working, have plumped for Priyanka.
However, those who are close to the family say that the two can only be expected to work as a team and that there can never be any competition between them. They have had an extremely close bond as siblings, having been each other’s best friends in a highly isolated and protected life that they led following the assassination of their grandmother and their father. “Priyanka has been his pillar of support and he trusts her the most,” said a leader close to the family. “They also complement each other. If he is more analytical, she is better at people skills.”
The outcome of the decision, risky and bold, remains to be seen. But the move will make the election campaign more exciting.