New Delhi:
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, newly appointed All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday, attended the first official meeting of Congress party. In the meeting, Priyanka was deliberately seated away from her brother and party president Rahul Gandhi. IANS quoted political observers as saying that she was deliberately not seated next to Rahul but away from him to give a message to senior party leaders that as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretaries, they are as important as Priyanka Gandhi who is also a General Secretary.
Priyanka was given a seat next to Jyotiraditya Scindia, general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, in the middle of the right-side row.
The 47-year-old’s formal entry into politics was announced on January 23. Soon after that, she was allotted a room next to that of Rahul Gandhi's at the Congress headquarters. The room was earlier used by Rahul when he was the party vice president.
Scindia was also allotted an office in the same room, in a way to show that as Uttar Pradesh in-charges, both he and Priyanka are on the same pedestal, reports IANS.
Priyanka, who has been given the responsibility of reviving the Congress in the Uttar Pradesh, will visit Lucknow on Monday on her first trip to the state after being given the charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh. She will be accompanied by Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia - all three visiting the crucial state for the first time after the appointments announced last month.
Congress workers are planning a road show when the three leaders travel from the airport to the party's state headquarter. The party in Uttar Pradesh is seeing the visit as the virtual launch of the Congress campaign in the state, ahead of the coming Lok Sabha elections.
