Revision as of 15:43, 27 January 2019

Biographical detail

As in 2019, Jan

January 24, 2019, The Times of India

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as in 2019, Jan
From: January 24, 2019: The Times of India

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with family
From: January 24, 2019: The Times of India

After over a decade of will-she-won’t-she, Rahul Gandhi’s sister enters politics as Cong gen secy overseeing eastern UP, which includes PM Modi’s Varanasi LS seat

100 Yrs After Motilal First Became Cong President, His Great-Great-Granddaughter Gets Party Post

In a surprise move that spices up the poll broth ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday ended years of “will she, won’t she” suspense to finally take up the challenging task of reviving Congress fortunes in the barren turf of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The announcement of her appointment as party general secretary (in-charge of east UP) by her brother, Rahul Gandhi, caught senior Congress leaders unawares and set off heated speculation of the trigger behind her long-awaited formal

plunge into politics and the possible impact in UP, which had looked like a straight fight between BJP and the SP-BSP combine.

The role of poll management of a politically volatile region where caste and religion often shape voting preferences and which also includes PM Narendra Modi’s constituency of Varanasi and CM Yogi Adityanath’s home turf, Gorakhpur, seemed aimed to project a serious Congress bid to emerge as the third pole in the state.

Rahul’s reaction indicated as much when the Congress president said the party would play on the “front foot” in UP even as he sought to convey that the decision was not a hostile move against SP and BSP. He made it clear that giving Priyanka charge of eastern UP and Jyotiraditya Scindia that of western UP were not temporary moves. “Now, Congress will have its own CM in UP,” Rahul said.

The appointments are a novel experiment by Congress to split UP into two regions, with separate monitors. There is now a likelihood of two state chiefs. The development immediately spurred ongoing speculation whether Priyanka would replace mother Sonia at Rae Bareli or contest separately from Sultanpur. Rahul left the issue open, saying it would be his sister’s call.

An early read of the fallout of a credible Congress challenge — if it develops — seemed to be that a genuine three-cornered contest should aid BJP that was faced with regional biggies SP and BSP joining hands. Congress, like SP and BSP, will compete for Muslim votes. At the same time, a Priyanka-aided revival of Congress would appeal to Brahmins, which could hurt saffron prospects. It is also possible that upper castes unhappy with saffron politics, but chary of SP-BSP, now have a third option, one that will weaken BJP’s main challengers.

Priyanka, who was seen by Congress workers as a “natural” for politics, was never said to be averse to being in its hurly burly, but had confined her role to that of a campaigner for Sonia and Rahul in the family seats of Rae Bareli and Amethi; possibly also because Sonia did not prefer to blur Rahul’s choice as heir apparent. With Congress’s recent win in the three BJP-ruled states having settled the leadership issue, a space for creating a bigger role for Priyanka has emerged. It could also be felt that the bounce provided by the results was a good time to launch Priyanka and gain traction in UP where Congress is in danger of being locked out.

Interestingly, the appointment comes in a year that marks the centenary of Priyanka’s great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru taking over as Congress president at Amritsar in 1919.

UP assignment Priyanka’s baptism by fire

That this will be baptism by fire for Priyanka, currently in the US and expected to take charge of her assignment in first week of February, is evident from the fact that Congress has declined in its one-time stronghold with 80 Lok Sabha seats post-Mandal and Mandir politics, touching a nadir in 2014. While it could win only two seats in the last LS polls, it won just seven in the 403-member assembly in 2017.

Pitching Priyanka into the UP “dangal”, where regional power houses BSP and SP have left Congress out of an anti-BJP alliance, seems a serious gamble. It shows a willingness to go full throttle, its fallout for the “secular” camp unity notwithstanding. The stakes of moving Priyanka to centrestage are too high for the move to be a feint, it was felt. If the challenge gathers steam, Congress may be able to work out an informal deal with SP-BSP for “friendly” fights in some seats.

For her political debut, the choice of eastern UP is interesting. The sprawling pocket has strong presence of Brahmins and Muslims — demographics that Congress hopes would drift to its fold in a favourable campaign. It appears the party’s best hope in the otherwise bleak landscape.

His decision also marked Rahul’s apparent squeamishness over being seen as a “dynast”: a tag which was so much at odds with his professed aim to democratise Congress, and signalled a resolve to brazen out the probe facing Priyanka’s controversial spouse Robert. The appointment comes when the probes seemed to be closing in on Vadra’s alleged role in scams. She has previously said she will not be “cowed down” by the BJP government and will bank on a charismatic presence that attracts media attention.

At the same time, party insiders conceded, there is a possibility of a dual centre of power emerging over time even though Rahul and Priyanka are seen to enjoy an extraordinary synergy, with the sister seen as a confidante and supporter of her older brother. At the same time, she will be more than just a general secretary and formalise the influence she has wielded from behind the scene. Her debut can also be read as an assertion of her claim to her political legacy.

A political role for Priyanka has often been discussed. As Sonia Gandhi began to mull succession in UPA-2, there was pressure that the legatee be her daughter who bore resemblance to Congress mascot Indira Gandhi and was seen to have her political spark.

After Sonia made it clear that Rahul will hold the baton, the 2014 rout and continuing slide over four years created uncertainty, with repeated demands from sections that Priyanka be brought in. Former AICC general secretary incharge of organisation, Janardan Dwivedi, had already touched off a furore by claiming that father Rajiv Gandhi had confided in him that Priyanka was a “natural”.

Though Sonia managed to stub the renewed clamour, Priyanka’s entry amid Congress decline would inevitably have drawn comparisons with Rahul, and resulted in confusion in the ranks.

Also, with Congress sensing revival, insiders felt introducing an “X-factor” would add to the momentum nationally and could make a crucial difference. There is a strong possibility that Congress may press her into campaigning in states where it has a direct face off with BJP.

But one thing is clear: Success or failure, there is no going back for her after formally joining politics following nearly a decade of equivocation.

Quotes: 2008-19

Priyanka Gandhi, quotes- 2008-19: Part I
From: January 24, 2019: The Times of India

Priyanka Gandhi, quotes- 2008-19: Part II
From: January 24, 2019: The Times of India

See graphics:

Priyanka Gandhi, quotes- 2008-19: Part I

Priyanka Gandhi, quotes- 2008-19- Part II

Politics: 1989-2019, Jan

Swati Mathur, THE OTHER ‘BHAIYYA’ TO THE RESCUE, January 24, 2019: The Times of India

Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi as children
From: Swati Mathur, THE OTHER ‘BHAIYYA’ TO THE RESCUE, January 24, 2019: The Times of India

Priyanka, in 1997
From: Swati Mathur, THE OTHER ‘BHAIYYA’ TO THE RESCUE, January 24, 2019: The Times of India

More Than Two Decades After Her First Poll Campaign, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Decides It’s Time To Join Politics

In an informal interaction with the press while campaigning for brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Amethi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was asked the one question that had consumed political analysts and workers: “when will you formally join politics?”

In reply, Priyanka had said, “My own childhood has been anything but normal. I have seen the violent deaths of my grandmother and my father. I want to make sure my children have as normal a childhood as possible. Once they are grown up, maybe then....”, giving an insight into why she emerged every five years in Amethi and Rae Bareli, the Gandhi bastions in UP, but would not venture beyond.

Until now.

Her children, Miraya and Raihan, are now both well into their teens. And though she still makes time to travel to Puducherry to watch her daughter play basketball, and for photography (she has co-authored the book Ranthambore: The Tiger’s Realm), Priyanka — “bhaiyya” for most Congress workers in the Gandhi boroughs — has finally decided it is time to join politics, formally.

The state where she marks her fullfledged political debut is, however, no stranger to Priyanka the politician — the sharp-witted woman with an easy smile, and a striking resemblance with her grandmother. In the Gandhi bastions, she made her mark as much for being easily accessible — often sitting with an arm around elderly women from self-help groups in Amethi and Rae Bareli while listening to their problems — as for a temper that terrified party workers when they failed to execute an order. And in the 2014 election, when BJP was on a high and Smriti Irani led the charge in the Gandhi boroughs, Priyanka kept spirits up by matching her barb-for-barb.

She also showed she wouldn’t shy away from doing things her way when she met her father’s assassin in Vellore jail in 2008.

The ability to work with single-minded focus, party workers say, is what sets Priyanka apart. She began campaigning from Amethi first in 1989, and then again in 1991 when she and mother Sonia pitched for Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister. In 1999, after a gap of eight years, Priyanka took charge once again.

A senior Congress functionary who worked with the Gandhi family recalled that in 1999, when Sonia contested both Bellary and Amethi, Priyanka worked tirelessly on the campaign, setting herself and party workers targets. “It was a difficult election because there were BJP governments in UP as well as at the Centre. We were also recovering from the 1998 battle, in which Congress had lost Amethi. Priyanka was determined. She had set herself and us a target; that Sonia Gandhi should defeat her opponent by a margin of a minimum 3 lakh votes,” the Congress member said.

Sonia Gandhi won that election, defeating her rival BJP candidate Sanjay Sinh — now in Congress — by a margin of 3,00,012 votes.

In many ways, Congress is depending on Priyanka to replicate in East UP the organisational setup she built for her mother and brother in Rae Bareli and Amethi. At present, These are probably the only two districts in Uttar Pradesh where Congress has a team of workers in every gram sabha and where the party holds ‘jan sabhas’ (mass contact) programmes daily, contacting nearly 100 people at their doorsteps. As she takes on a larger responsibility in UP, she’s Congress’ resurrection plan, or, as Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, the party “playing on the front foot”.