With an aim to strengthen the Congress in view of the 2022 UP Assembly elections, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has decided to meet ground-level workers from eastern Uttar Pradesh two days a week in New Delhi. Priyanka, who is in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, will be interacting with ordinary Congress party workers between 10 am to 1 pm every Tuesday and Thursday. The party workers could meet Priyanka without any formal appointment. She will also visit the state in order to connect with the grassroots-level workers and a blueprint of the visit is being worked upon. It is expected that Priyanka will try to get a sense of Congress’ organisational conditions on the ground and figure out where the party lacks in the state. According to a source in the party, two such meetings have already taken place. On Thursday, Priyanka accompanied her mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to her maiden visit to Raebareli after winning in the Lok Sabha elections. During the visit, she came down heavily at the party workers for not working in favour of the party in the general elections. The Congress leader has also told the party workers to be ready for the fight ahead. Priyanka said that she will find out the name of workers who did not work in favour of the party in the Lok Sabha elections. “You all know about those who worked religiously and I will find out about those who did not work for the party in the elections,” she had said. Priyanka had campaigned vigorously in favour of Congress candidates in UP, especially in Raebareli and Amethi but the party lost all the seats in UP with Raebareli being the only exception. Even Congress President Rahul Gandhi could not save his seat Amethi which he had been representing since 2004. After the Lok Sabha debacle, Priyanka faces an uphill task to strengthen the party cadre in the state in view of the upcoming bypoll and the Assembly elections due in 2022. Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections by winning a paltry 52 seats.
