Priyanka likely to make close kin Sheila Kaul's Lucknow house her operational base in UP

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to operate from the house of her close relative and late Union minister Sheila Kaul during her visits to the state capital.

Late Sheila Kaul was former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's maternal aunt and a sister-in-law of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Her house is located at Gokhle Marg in Lucknow, about three kilometers from the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters.

Priyanka Gandhi who has been active on the Twitter expressing her views on major developments in the state, is likely to utilise Kaul's house as the base for her political activities in the state, said party sources.

During her last visit to the state capital on October 2 to participate in the Gandhi Jayanti march, Priyanka Gandhi had visited the house and spent some time there before embarking on the programme, senior party leaders said.

The house is lying vacant at present with no one from the Kaul's family using it now.

They party leaders said once Priyanka gandhi gets an operational base in Lucknow, she will be giving more time to Uttar Pradesh and will visit it more frequently.

There was a move earlier to search a house for her, meeting her security needs, in the Gomti Nagar area in the capital.

With Priyanka Gandhi being a Special Protection Group protectee and tentatively deciding to use Kaul's house as her operational base in Lucknow, the SPG would now examine if the address meets all the security needs.

A final decision on the issue of utilisation of the house as Gandhi's operational base will be taken only upon SPG's recommendations, said senior party leaders.

At the time Priyanka Gandhi was appointed Congress general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, former party president Rahul Gandhi had said his sister has been given the responsibility as part of a long-term planning.

"She hasn't been sent there for four months, she has been sent there with a larger plan. We will not only defeat BJP in 2019 but also win 2022 elections," Rahul Gandhi had said when she was assigned the important role in Uttar Pradesh.