Zee Media Bureau/Manisha Singh
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi`s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday called a high-level meet of party leaders at vice president Rahul Gandhi`s residence here. Given the fact that speculations are rife that Rahul may be declared as the prime ministerial candidate for 2014 General Elections on January 17, the meeting assumed significance and created a buzz.
The meeting which was attended by Sonia`s political secretary Ahmed Patel, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh and senior leader Janardhan Dwivedi, among others, may also lead to speculations that is Priyanka is now gearing up to assume a bigger role in the party affairs while Rahul takes care of politics. In other words, is she getting ready to play a bigger role in party affairs and take some of the burden from her mother?
Reports have been doing the rounds for quite a while now that Sonia wants to take a backseat and hand over more and more responsibility to Rahul. However, a perception has been there that the Congress VP has not been able to take over the mantle from Sonia in the way he should have. Electoral defeats in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and in the recently concluded Assembly Elections have not helped matters.
Also, Rahul has been perceived by the media as a reluctant politician. But with the 2014 polls just a few months away, the Congress vice president has been seen to be more pro-active lately and has intervened in matters like the Ordinance for convicted lawmakers and the Adarsh scam report.
But with ten years of anti-incumbency facing them in the face, it cannot be denied that going to the electorate to seek re-election is going to be an uphill task for the Congress. And in such a scenario, a large section of the Congress cadre would want Priyanka to be more actively involved in the party affairs and campaign for them in the Lok Sabha polls, if not contest elections.
It can also not be denied that in the past certain sections of the Congress have expressed the desire that Priyanka should become an active politician and they have often compared her to the former PM of India and her grandmother, Indira Gandhi.
Though not a full-fledged politician, Priyanaka has campaigned in her family bastion of Amethi and Rae Bareli and has been overlooking organisational issues there for some time now.
Thus, questions surrounding Priyanka and the role that she is likely to play in the Congress party will continue to do the rounds and every move that she makes will always be in the realm of speculation.
