Congress clips wings of PK in UP for time being
18 November, Lucknow
Congress high command has reportedly clipped the wings of the poll strategist Prashant Kishor at least, for the time being in Uttar Pradesh.
Sources confirmed here that now Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will monitor the campaign and was also likely to actively lead the party’s fight for a comeback here in the poll-bound state.
“No, we had not asked PK to stop work in Uttar Pradesh but had just directed him to first concentrate of Punjab election”, confirmed a senior Congress leader.
He claimed PK’s help will be once again taken in UP also. The leader made claims soon after the meeting of senior leaders of the party on ‘UP’s election strategy’ was over in New Delhi this afternoon.
The meeting was attended by both party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Ms Vadra, AICC general secretary and Incharge of party affairs in UP Ghulam Nabi Azad, state president Raj Babbar, along with senior leaders like Sanjay Singh, Pramod Tewari, RPN Sigh and others. However, sources confirmed that after receiving several complaints from senior leaders of UP and also finding that many more leaders may quit, like former state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi did, in the coming days due to over aggressiveness of PK, so the high command finally clipped his wings asking him to concentrate on Punjab.
Sources also maintained that the decision was also taken as Ms Vadra, who is now scheduled to take up campaign from where Gandhi had left after his `Deoria se Delhi Kisan Yatra’, was not happy with PK, who projected himself in the media as if he could solely changed the fortune of Congress in UP and also tried to over-shadow all the other senior leaders including members of the Gandhi family.
Besides, the high command was also against PK for openly making move for a `grand alliance’ even after knowing that the Congress’s on-going campaign is targeting all the three political opponents BJP, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, and blaming them for the entire backwardness through which the state is going in the last 27 years of non-Congress rule.Reports said that now Ms Vadra will campaign for Congress and play a “major role” in the coming Assembly election to be held early next year.
“She (Priyanka) is going to play a major role. Let everything be finalised,” UP Congress campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh told mediapersons in New Delhi.”It has been decided that she will campaign for the party in the state elections. She has accepted our request to campaign. Whenever we will get her schedule, we will use her time accordingly,” State Congress chief Raj Babbar had said earlier.
He added that once the elections schedule is announced, it will bring more clarity on her plans for campaign in the state.
Earlier, Mr Babbar had said Ms Vadra’s presence will give confidence and energy not only to the party men but also to the people across the state. He had also mentioned that if she gives enough time then she could campaign in all the 403 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.In the past, Ms Vadra has not campaigned in elections outside Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies, represented by her brother Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi respectively.
A large section of Congress leaders believe that the party will gain immensely if she campaigns across the state.