Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to meet Congress party workers in Lucknow today

New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will meet the party workers from Rae Bareli, Amethi, Sultanpur, and other constituencies in Lucknow on Saturday, her second visit to the city after she was appointed general secretary in-charge of eastern UP.

Priyanka’s Saturday visit comes close on the heels of the Congress’ first list of 15 candidates announced for the Lok Sabha seats on Thursday.

The party has fielded UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively, the seats they won in 2014 Lok Sabha polls as well.

According to sources, Priyanka’s Saturday visit to Lucknow, the second after she undertook the first visit on February 11, will see her interacting with the party workers from a number of Lok Sabha seats, but mainly from Rae Bareli, Amethi, and Sultanpur. It is worth mentioning that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s stronghold Gorakhpur are also part of the eastern UP, where the Congress has pinned its hope on Priyanka this time.

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Congress has fielded former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, RPN Singh, and Jitin Prasad from the Lok Sabha seats of Farrukhabad, Kushi Nagar, and Dhaurahra in Uttar Pradesh respectively. On February 22, Priyanka and Jyotiraditya Scindia, general secretary in charge for western UP, had held a meeting here with the state’s Congress unit chief Raj Babbar to strategise for the coming Lok Sabha polls.

It is worth mentioning that Priyanka played a key role in inducting sitting BJP MP Savitribai Phule into the party. Phule represents Bahraich Lok Sabha constituency. Phule on December 6 had resigned from the BJP accusing the party of dividing the society and not doing enough on the issue of reservation. Apart from Phule, former MP from Samajwadi Party (SP) Rakesh Sachan, and former BSP lawmaker from Sitapur Kaiser Jahan have joined the Congress in the presence of Priyanka.

The Congress party has decided to contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats at stake in Uttar Pradesh after the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced their seat-sharing arrangement without making Congress a part of their alliance. The two parties have agreed to not field their candidates from Rae Bareli and Amethi. The Lok Sabha elections, which are due in April-May, will see a high voltage campaign in Uttar Pradesh this time around, where the BJP and its ally had almost swept by winning 74 seats in 2014. The Congress and the SP had won two and four seats respectively, while the BSP drew a blank.

Congress has fielded Imran Masood from Saharanpur while Saleem Iqbal Sheervani will be contesting from Badaun Lok Sabha seat. Annu Tandon will be contesting from Unnao constituency and Rajaram Pal from Akbarpur. Brij Lal Khabri will try his luck from Jalaun reserved seat in Uttar Pradesh. Nirmal Khatri will contest Faizabad.