The Face For The Other Side Of U.P.

Priyanka Gandhi formally enters politics from home ground. First impressions from eastern UP.

- Salik Ahmad

Big hoardings congratulating Priyanka Gandhi on behalf of district Congress leaders, some wearing sunglasses, have sprung up near the Feroze Gandhi College in Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Under their gaze, teenagers with new-age haircuts go about speeding on their bikes, honking obsessively. Last week, the Congress leadership appointed Priyanka Gandhi the party in-charge for eastern Uttar Pradesh.

At the national level, her elevation to the position has provided much grist to media mills, triggering questions like will she boost the Congress’s electoral prospects in the forthcoming general elections, will she take up some of PM Narendra Modi’s media space, will she contest from Rae Bareli and so on. In her family’s traditional constituency, she delivered a spontaneous and effortlessly confident speech to much applause. But how does the eastern UP terrain look for her and the Congress beyond the loyalist crowd in front of the podium?

“People here don’t see anybody beyond the Gandhis in the general elections. Whether it’s Sonia or Priyanka, it’s a sure-shot win for the Congress,” says Sukhendra Pratap Singh, a contractor, who is getting his bike repaired at a shop near the college, adding that Priyanka’s formal entry into politics doesn’t change anything in the constituency.