Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has not yet given her consent to campaign in Uttar Pradesh, though the party is hopeful she would agree to their request, Rajya Sabha MP and Uttar Pradesh Congress campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh said yesterday.
“We have been requesting her to campaign for a long time. We are hopeful that she would give her consent to campaign,” Singh said.
“And when she gives her consent, we’ll let everyone know,” he added.
“As of now, she has not said ‘yes’... But we are confident that she would agree.”
Asked about media reports that Priyanka would play a “major role” in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls next year, he said: “I am not saying it is ‘incorrect or correct’.”
Priyanka and her brother and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attended the party’s strategy meeting on Uttar Pradesh elections here on Friday.
Priyanka has attended the party’s strategy meeting on UP assembly elections in the past as well.
Asked if anything has been finalised on the selection of candidates for the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Singh said: “The process is going on. Very soon we’ll announce the list.”
“If it becomes necessary to announce anything, we will do it at that very moment,” he said without giving further details.
He also said the next strategy meeting will be held after November 22.
Singh declined to comment on Congress’ polls strategist Prashant Kishor’s fate, and said only party general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, can comment.
Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka will be in Allahabad tomorrow to attend a photo exhibition on former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s life to mark her birth centenary celebrations.
Priyanka has so far confined her electoral campaigning to constituencies of her mother and brother Rae Bareli and Amethi.
The Congress has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh for over three decades. The party has also not won any major state assembly poll since its debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

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