Priyanka Gandhi emerges as party pivot

New Delhi: A tweet by political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, on Saturday made it official that Priyanka Gandhi is going to play the role of a key decision maker in the grand old party as far as upcoming Assembly polls are concerned.

The emergence of 35 Lodhi Estate, Priyanka’s residence, as the new power centre in the Congress circuit — apart from 10 Janpath of  Sonia Gandhi and 12 Lodhi Estate of  Rahul Gandhi’s house — has been a work in progress for a while now.

While Rahul Gandhi is the party’s face since 2014 Lok Sabha election, it is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been on the forefront as far as elections in crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are concerned.

In the past one year, she took keen interest in the party affairs and met several key leaders and listened to their issues. Her emergence can also be attributed to party strategist Prashant Kishor, who met her initially before outlining his plans for the Congress campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

Priyanka Gandhi is regularly seen with her mother but her first solo public appearance came when she went to meet general secretary in-charge of UP, Ghulam Nabi Azad, in July 2016. Thereafter, she played a keyrole in planning of all important political activities.

Sources say the alliance talks in UP were driven by her. It was she who was in regular touch with both UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and his wife and MP Dimple Yadav. Sources added that she was the final clearing authority from the Congress on seat sharing.

Interestingly, when the Congress was being accused of sending “small fry” to negotiate with the SP, it was told to the opposite side that she was the one who was coordinating efforts.

Sources said she was the one who played a key role in taking former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu in the party fold.