Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday named as chairperson of the Congress party’s screening committee for Assam where assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year.
This is the first organisational task assigned to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra after her role as All India Congress Commitee general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. The Congress party lost UP elections in 2022 winning just two seats. Since then she has been a general secretary without specific assignment even as she became a Lok Sabha member from Wayanad in 2024.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra‘s name featured in the list of leaders named in screening committees of the Congress party for shortlisting the party candidates for the poll-bound states.
Madhusudan Mistry has been made the chairperson of screening committee for Kerala, TS Singh Deo as head of panel for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and BK Hariprasad for West Bengal.
The candidates shortlisted by the screening committees, in consultations with the respective state Congress committees, will then be discussed by the Congress Central Election Committee, which takes the final selection of party candidates.
Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry will go to assembly polls this year.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been in the focus of late, especially after her speeches in the Parliament, her meeting with Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari about her constituency following a light-hearted exchange in the House; and a joke she shared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the customary post-Parliament session tea hosted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have added to the buzz around her.
Some reports suggested Priyanka Vadra being the only AICC general secretary without any assigned responsibility was being discussed and that she should be given a much more prominent role within the party. Many within and outside the party even compared her speeches in Parliament to with that of Rahul Gandhi, her brother.
Priyanka Gandhi Political Career
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is Member of Parliament (MP) from Wayanad in Kerela and is AICC general secretary.
For years before becoming an MP, she stayed out of formal politics, acting mainly as a campaigner and strategist for the Congress party. She, however, played key roles in Amethi and Rae Bareli, the Gandhi strongholds and managed campaigns for Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
She entered into active politics in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 with many calling her Congress party’s trump card before 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In January 2019, Priyanka Gandhi was appointed as General Secretary (East Uttar Pradesh). Her entry was seen as a bid to revive Congress fortunes in UP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
But the Congress party lost Lok Sabha elections. The BJP-led NDA returned to power with a landslide. In UP, Congress won only one seat — that of Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli. Rahul Gandhi lost to Smriti Irani from the family stronghold of Amethi in 2019.
Priyanka Vadra was made in charge of Uttar Pradesh ahead of 2022 assembly elections. The party won just two of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
Priyanka Gandhi campaigned in 2024 general elections. She took an electoral jump and contested from Wayanad seat during a bypoll. The seat was vacated by her brother Rahul Gandhi who won two seats – Wayanad and Rae Bareli. The former Wayanad MP decided to retain Rae Bareli seat.
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