Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who joined active politics just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and was entrusted the charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, failed to impress the electorate enough to turn the tide in favour of her party, if the exit polls are to be believed.

Priyanka campaigned extensively in 26 Lok Sabha constituencies over the last two months in Uttar Pradesh after kicking off her political journey with a grand road show in Lucknow on February 11 along with her brother and party President Rahul Gandhi.

She was appointed Congress General Secretary on January 23 and given the responsibility of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, with the hope that her active involvement in the campaign would boost the party’s electoral prospects in the politically crucial state where 80 out of 542 Lok Sabha seats are at stake.

The Congress general secretary kicked off her political campaigning in the state with all new 140 km-long river ride campaign programme on river Ganga from March 18 to 20.

In the first leg of her campaigning in the state, she covered the parliamentary constituencies of Prayagraj, Bhadohi, Mirzapur and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha seat of Varanasi.

The Congress leader tried to connect with the masses in the form of small public meetings and street corner meetings during her road shows.

Priyanka Gandhi, who is likened with her grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi due to her similar looks, also interacted with the women and mixed with the public during her road shows and public meetings by breaking the security protocol.

Her campaign mainly focussed on attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over the issues of unemployment, GST, nationalism and corruption. A

To cut into the backward votes of the BJP, she also attempted to connect with the weavers and the fishermen community residing along the banks of river Ganga and blamed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for closure of their businesses.

The Congress leader mostly campaigned in her brother’s constituency Amethi, her mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi.

She also campaigned in Ghaziabad, Fatehpur, Ayodhya, Kanpur, Jhansi, Unnao, Barabanki, Dhaurhara, Jalaon, Bahraich, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, Basti, Pratapgarh, Banda, Deoria, Maharajganj, Kushinagar Lok Sabha seats and in the parliamentary constituency of Sultanpur, from where her aunt Maneka Gandhi was contesting in the polls.

Priyanka visited the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency five times in last two months. She also participated in the road show of her brother before filing he filed his nomination papers. Her husband Robert Vadra and children Raihan and Miraya also accompanied.

In absence of her brother from Amethi, where Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani had camped during the elections for over a one and half month, she worked to ensure that the party’s votes remained intact. She also ensured that her brother gives a tight fight to the BJP in Amethi.

Priyanka, during her five visits to Amethi, held closed door meetings with party workers and leaders of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party in Amethi, as they had decided not to field any candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Rahul Gandhi has won from Amethi since 2004 with a margin of over three lakh votes till 2009. But his victory margin shrunk in 2014 against Irani, although he got 1.07 lakh votes more as compared to his main rival on his home turf.

Priyanka also visited Rae Bareli six times in last two months to campaign for her mother. Sonia Gandhi has remained out of campaigning from Rae Bareli citing health issues. In her absence Priyanka Gandhi undertook the task to campaign for her mother.

During her visits to Rae Bareli, Priyanka Gandhi held meetings with the party supporters and workers from all the five assembly constituencies.

But the charisma that the party expected from the second most prominent face of the party in the state did not gel up with the voters in 2019 Lok Sabha.

In the earlier Lok Sabha elections, Priyanka campaigned mainly for her brother and mother in the state and did not participate in the party’s campaign elsewhere.

Besides Uttar Pradesh, she also campaigned in Haryana’s Rohtak, Hisar and Ambala Cantt Lok Sabha seats, Punjab’s Gurdaspur and Bhatinda, Madhya Pradesh’s Indore and Ratlam, Assam’s Silchar and the national capital’s south Delhi and north east Delhi Lok Sabha seats.AA

NDTV’s poll of polls predicted that the BJP will get 49 seats compared to 73 seats it won in 2014. The grand alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal was poised to win 29 seats in the state while the Congress was likely to win only two seats.

According to the most of the exit polls, the BJP-led NDA, which had won 73 out of 80 seats in the state in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, is now likely to win above 60 seats. The exit polls also predicted that the SP-BSP-RLD alliance is likely to win 10 to 16 seats, and the Congress one to two seats.

An effective campaigner, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be fulfilling a long-cherished wish of Congress workers and injecting a new enthusiasm in the partys preparations for the coming Lok Sabha elections by making a full-fledged entry into active politics in the treacherous battleground of Uttar Pradesh.

Her sudden appointment as General Secretary by the party President and her brother, Rahul Gandhi, Amethi took the country’s political circles by surprise and has rejuvenated the Congress rank and file.

The appointment came just as campaign has started picking up pace for the Lok Sabha polls slated for April-May.

A mother of two, Priyanka Gandhi, 47, has been reluctant to take a full political plunge even though she has been campaigning for Rahul Gandhi and her mother and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi in their constituencies in the parliamentary polls and has been involved in party decisions and strategy concerning Uttar Pradesh.

The first signal of her taking an active political role came in 2017 when she was involved in the backroom discussions to thrash out an alliance with Samajwadi Party during the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

With Rahul Gandhi emerging as the heir apparent to Nehru-Gandhi family legacy in the Congress since he contested his first parliamentary election in 2004, Priyanka Gandhi has preferred to be in the background and has been a pillar of support to her brother.

Priyanka Gandhi is seen as charismatic, poised, sharp, intelligent, combative, communicative, quick-witted and a leader who easily connects with people.

Party rank and file see her as the “brahmastra” to defeat the BJP and she is seen to have more prowess as a campaigner than her brother.

Her appointment has enthused party workers. As general secretary incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi is expected to energise the party’s campaign and queer the pitch for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the MP from Varanasi.

Her appointment has come at a critical time for the Congress. The party is no longer in the pole position in Indian politics, having been squeezed out by the BJP.

After its debacle in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has lost several elections to the BJP and finally made a turn around late last year after forming governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The party is emaciated in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to parliament, and the two seats the party won in 2014 were in no small measure due to the role played by Priyanka Gandhi in the campaign.

The Congress has been edged out of Bajujan Samaj Party-Samawadi Party alliance for the Lok Sabha polls in the state and an apparent reason for Priyanka being given an active role in the state is Rahul Gandhi’s desire “to play on the front foot” wherever the party is contesting elections.

With her mannerisms and looks reminiscent of former Prime Minister and her grandmother Indira Gandhi – who was seen as a decisive leader and a fighter – Congress workers always have had an innate and abiding faith in Priyanka Gandhi and in her ability to deliver at the grassroots.

Posters of “Priyanka lao” have often appeared outside the Congress central office after the party’s defeats over the last four-and-a-half years.

A private person, Priyanka Gandhi had, in an interview to NDTV, described herself “almost a recluse” and said she did not want to be in politics.

“I’m very happy living my life the way I am. I think there are certain aspects of politics which I’m just not suited to,” she had said.

Priyanka Gandhi had also said that she sees herself more like her father, Rajiv Gandhi, than her grandmother and had expressed an abiding admiration for her Italian-born mother for the way she steered the party through difficult times despite not having a natural liking for the party. “If there’s one woman I admire in the world, it’s my mother,” she had said.

Priyanka Gandhi has not eschewed political crossfire in the past, having attacked the BJP and Modi during her campaigns in Amethi and Rae Bareli. She had also taken part in the midnight potest last year by Rahul Gandhi against the Kathua and Unnao rapes.

Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into active politics is also seen as a step to give her a formal role in assisting Rahul Gandhi in running the grand Old Party when Sonia Gandhi is not longer very active due to health-related issues.

There has been an apprehension and speculation that two power centres could emerge in the Congress with her formal entry but observers feel Priyanka Gandhi is unlikely to allow any such tendency to gain ground.

There has also been an apprehension that cases of alleged irregularities in land deals faced by her husband Robert Vadra could be a reason for the delay in her taking a more active role in politics.

Having taken the political plunge, she is also expected to contest the Lok Sabha polls. If and when she announces that decision, it will create another buzz in the Congress which could hope to improve its prospects in the Lok Sabha polls.

Like her brother, Priyanka Gandhi has braved personal tragedies of assassination of her father Rahul Gandhi and her grandmother Indira Gandhi.

Priyanka Gandhi was born on January 12, 1972 in New Delhi and did her schooling in the city. She later pursued her degreee in psychology from Jesus and Mary College.