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 be strictly associated with the poll campaigns of her mother and brother for years now, the 52-year-old Congress leader is presently the party’s general secretary 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 bask 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 electoral battleground.
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.
Despite her unwillingness to contest, the push came from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party workers.
Wanted brother Rahul to shine
Priyanka, whose marriage to businessman Robert Vadra in 1997 raised many eyebrows, was busy raising her two children even as she stayed in the shadows, working behind the scenes, with many experts saying she wanted her brother to shine.
She is known to deal with people directly on the ground, and is a popular figure in the Raebareli and Amethi constituencies, which belonged to her mother and brother. Even before she actively joined politics, she was her mother’s campaign manager in the 2004 general elections and supervised her brother’s campaign as well.
But, since her entry in active politics in 2019, she has always been projected as a possible challenger to Modi from Varanasi. She was made the general secretary incharge of eastern UP, and then the general secretary incharge of the entire state in September 2020. But, despite all her efforts to bring reforms in the organisational structure of the Congress in the state, the party faced a massive defeat in the last assembly election in 2022.
If Priyanka wins the Lok Sabha bypoll from Wayanad, it will be for the first time that three members of the Gandhi family will be in Parliament. Her mother Sonia Gandhi is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan.
Is Priyanka her party’s talisman?
With the Congress putting up a surprisingly good show in the Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka has cemented her position as her party’s talisman. “The Congress for a long time was in search of an effective campaigner and in the 2024 elections Priyanka Gandhi has been a revelation in the way she has responded to Modi. Priyanka Gandhi showed Modi can be countered and played a key role pan-India,” said Rasheed Kidwai, who has authored several books, including 24 Akbar Road: A Short History Of The People Behind The Fall And Rise Of The Congress.
Political commentator and former Congress leader Sanjay Jha hailed Priyanka as an “outstanding campaigner”. “Her sharp and prompt rebuttals to Mr Modi’s jibes have worked wonders during the campaign. Her presence has been talismanic,” he said.
Her role in the INDIA bloc’s Lok Sabha campaign – the opposition front won 233 seats out of 543 with the Congress emerging as its largest constituent with 99 seats – was pivotal in countering constant barbs from Modi and other BJP leaders. Countering Modi over his “gold and mangalsutra” remarks, an emotionally charged Priyanka reminded the voters that her mother Sonia Gandhi sacrificed her mangalsutra for the country.
During her campaigning, she also discussed her childhood, the pain of her father Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and her mother’s grief. She steered the Congress campaign, adroitly walking the tightrope between striking a familial chord and discussing national-level issues, and proved to be a strategist, orator and mass mobiliser.
Priyanka took part in 108 public meetings and roadshows. She campaigned in 16 states and one union territory and also addressed two conferences of workers in Amethi and Raebareli. It looks like her effort paid off.
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.”
(With PTI inputs)
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