Priyanka Gandhi has said she will confine her electioneering for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls to Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies and not go beyond these places.
After spending Friday placating disgruntled Congress workers in Amethi, the star campaigner shifted her focus to Rae Bareli on Saturday. Priyanka said she hoped brother Rahul’s public meetings would improve the party's prospects in the assembly elections. “He is working hard,” Priyanka said, adding that the Vidhan Sabha elections were only the first step.
Priyanka met Congress workers in Rae Bareli and party candidate R.P. Singh. The seat is held by Akhilesh Kumar Singh, a former Congressman who is contesting as an Independent this time. A three-term MLA, Akhilesh Singh is serving a sentence in Kanpur jail on murder charges. He faces many criminal charges, including one of attacking R.P. Singh’s brother after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
Saying that her main job was to strengthen the Congress organisation, Priyanka said her mother Sonia Gandhi “and brother Rahul Gandhi have sent me here. I will conduct Congress’s campaign in Amethi and Rae Bareli as I did in Lok Sabha elections”.
Akhilesh had won the 2002 Vidhan Sabha poll with a huge margin and secured 74.18 per cent votes on a Congress ticket. After splitting from the Congress, he formed the ABCD party. His brother Ashok Kumar Singh contested the 2004 poll against Sonia on a Samajwadi Party ticket. Sonia secured 87,303 votes in Rae Bareli while the SP candidate secured only 41,476 votes there.
On the Congress’s present prospects in Rae Bareli, Priyanka said this was the first Vidhan Sabha election after Sonia had shifted to Rae Bareli. Replying to whether the Congress would face problems at Rae Bareli, Priyanka said there were challenges. “We have to win seats,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}On the Congress’s present prospects in Rae Bareli, Priyanka said this was the first Vidhan Sabha election after Sonia had shifted to Rae Bareli. Replying to whether the Congress would face problems at Rae Bareli, Priyanka said there were challenges. “We have to win seats,” she said.
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