Rahul, not I, will take on PM in LS polls: Priyanka

LUCKNOW: Congress general secretary (east UP) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who held marathon meetings with party workers here, on Wednesday said party president Rahul Gandhi, and not she, would take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

“Rahulji ka muqabla hoga (Rahul will take him on),” Priyanka said when asked whether she would take on the PM in the polls.

She was replying to a question after holding meetings that lasted nearly 16 hours from 1pm on Tuesday to about 5.30am on Wednesday. Asked about the Enforcement Directorate questioning her husband Robert Vadra, Priyanka said such things would keep on happening.

“I will keep doing my work. These things will keep on happening. I will keep doing my things,” she said. As the issue of the party’s ‘poor’ structure in UP came up at her meetings, she said, “I am learning a lot about how to restructure the organisation and the changes needed to be made on the road ahead.”

She said she was seeking party workers’ views about contesting and winning the polls.

If those meeting her at the marathon rounds of discussions were to be believed, Priyanka has expressed concern about the ‘poor party structure’.

She indicated the party may go with the same structure in Lok Sabha polls though drastic changes will be made in the organisation later to restructure the organization up to the booth level in Uttar Pradesh.

“We have no organisation at the grassroots level. But we have to go to the poll with the present organisation. We have had a jumbo sized UPCC of over 500 members. We need to trim the size. I know how to do it and I will do it,” a party leader quoted Priyanka as saying at a meeting with workers of Lucknow on Tuesday late evening.

Priyanka’s meetings, however, have enthused workers. After the marathon meetings, posters saying “Iron Lady is Back” were put up on the front gate of UPCC headquarters.

“We workers salute Priyanka Didi for her hard work of continuing meetings from mid-noon to early morning,” said Rahul Awasthi in the posters.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lookalike Abhinandan Pathak, who had recently joined the Congress sat on a dharna at UPCC headquarters, saying he was not being allowed to meet Priyanka. Later, Pathak lifted his dharna claiming he got a call from Priyanka and he would meet her on late Wednesday evening.

Later in evening, she along with her west UP counterpart Jyotiraditya Scindia, announced a tie-up with the little known Mahan Dal, a political outfit that claims support among certain pockets of backward classes in central and west UP.

AFTER THE MARATHON MEETINGS, POSTERS SAYING “IRON LADY IS BACK” WERE PUT UP ON THE FRONT GATE OF UPCC HEADQUARTERS