Priyanka gets cracking after debut in UP as Cong gen secy

A day after making her debut in Uttar Pradesh's political arena as Congress's general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Tuesday got down to business, holding strategy sessions to script her party's victory in the upcoming parliamentary polls.

Returning to the state capital after a short visit to Jaipur, where her husband Robert Vadra and his mother Maureen appeared before the ED in connection with a probe into an alleged land scam in Rajasthan's border town of Bikaner, Gandhi got cracking at the UP Congress headquarters.

The party office here buzzed with activity as enthusiastic Congress workers gathered outside the UPCC building, even before she returned from an overnight stay in Jaipur.

Immediately after reached the party office, she was closeted with senior leaders and office bearers of Lucknow, Mohanlalganj, Prayagraj, Ambedkar Nagar, Sitapur, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Bahraich, Phulpur and Ayodhya Lok Sabha constituencies to galvanise the party's preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Priyanka Gandhi is slated to continue this exercise Wednesday and Thursday with leaders of other constituencies which she has been asked to take care of in eastern Uttar Pradesh by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, party sources said.

In an adjoining room, the newly appointed Congress general secretary incharge of western UP, Jyotiraditya Scinda, held deliberations with leaders from the constituencies he has been asked to groom.

Scindia too will hold strategy sessions over the next two days to ensure victory of candidates of the Congress, which has decided to go alone in all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, they said.

Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia, along with Rahul Gandhi, had held a grand roadshow here on Monday, raising hopes of a turnaround in the party's fortunes.

Virtually launching the party's Lok Sabha poll campaign, Rahul Gandhi asserted that it was the time to uproot the BJP and form government in the state.

Asserting that the party would "play on front foot", Rahul Gandhi Monday said, "Till a Congress ideology government is installed here (UP), we will not rest, and ensure justice for farmers, the youth and the poor."