Will Priyanka Gandhi be UP CM candidate?: Up to her, says Salman Khurshid
Priyanka Gandhi, who was in the state recently, held meeting with senior leaders and has asked Congress party workers to work round the clock.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will decide whether she wants to be the chief ministerial candidate in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, party leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid has said. "Congress would contest the UP assembly polls under party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's leadership and she herself would decide on the issue of whether she would be party's chief ministerial candidate or not," Khurshid while speaking to reporters in Prayagraj on Saturday.
Speaking about the party's president, he said, "We already have a party president so we do not need another party president and we are satisfied. It seems people from outside (Congress) are not satisfied." Meanwhile, the Congress social media department unanimously passed a resolution to make Rahul Gandhi the party president. Earlier this week, Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress also passed a similar resolution.
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Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are scheduled to be held early next year. In the last assembly elections in 2017, the BJP won a landslide victory winning 312 seats and secured a 39.67 per cent vote share in the elections for the 403-member assembly. Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) won 47 seats, the BSP got 19 and the Congress managed to win only seven seats.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was in the state earlier this week and has asked party workers to work round the clock as she held meeting with senior leaders. On Saturday, she held a separate meeting with all the eight UPCC vice presidents, who are likely to be fielded as candidates in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election. She also completed a review of the party’s organisation structure set-up at various levels in the remaining four of eight zones on Saturday. She had completed a review of four zones on Friday.
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Before that, Congress on Friday constituted a three-member screening committee for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. “The Congress president has constituted the screening committee for the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The committee includes Jitendra Singh, Party MP Deepender Singh Hooda and MLA Varsha Gaikwad," the party said in a statement.
While the committee will be chaired by Jitendra Singh, Priyanka Gandhi, party state chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, Congress Legislative Party leader Aradhana Misra Mona and all AICC in-charge secretary of Uttar Pradesh have been made the ex officio members.
Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Giriraj Singh has said that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra won't make a difference even if she contests the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Singh exuded confidence that the BJP will form a government with a full majority in the upcoming assembly polls under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.