Congress planning 'bigger role' for Priyanka ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls

New Delhi, June 12:  Even as Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra kicked off her poll campaign for Madhya Pradesh on Monday and announced five guarantees for the state, party sources said that she is likely to play a bigger role in the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

According to party sources, Priyanka Gandhi, who campaigned aggressively in Himachal Pradesh last year and in Karnataka earlier this year, will keep on campaigning for the party in the poll bound states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan.

Priyanka Gandhi has already addressed a public meeting in Telangana's Hyderabad on May 8. She had targeted the Bharath Rashtra Samithi government in the state led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao over unemployment and several other issues during her first public meeting in the southern state.

On Monday, she also kicked off her first public meeting in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and announced the five guarantees in the state which included Rs 1500 per month to women, LPG cylinder for Rs 500, 100 units of free electricity and only half the price till 200 units, implementation of the old pension scheme and restarting the farm loan waiver scheme.

A source cited the success in Himachal Pradesh, where Priyanka Gandhi single handedly pulled off the election in favour of the party against the mighty BJP where Prime Minister Narendra Modi also campaigned aggressively. The victory in the hill state has helped her to create her own space in the party because during the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections former party chief Rahul Gandhi was busy in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and she led from the front, the source said. It was Priyanka Gandhi who made the slogan 'Aa rahi hai Congress' popular and her guarantee of the implementation of OPS, an important issue in the hill state during the polls, connected with the people, the source added.

Even in Karnataka, she along with her brother Rahul Gandhi campaigned extensively and made all the five guarantees a hit among the people, he said. "Thus looking at her aggressive form, the party wants Priyanka Gandhi to lead the campaign for the party in other poll bound states too," the source added.

Another source said that Priyanka Gandhi is likely to be made the chairperson of the Congress' Campaign Committee for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to project her in a bigger role. The source added that the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana may be just a kind of preparation for her ahead of the big role in the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the party wants to make a comeback at the national level.

The source said that a final call on this will be taken by the party leadership including party president Mallikarjun Kharge in the coming months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when several committees will be formed. However, senior leaders of the party remained tight-lipped on whether she will be made the chairperson of the party's Campaign Committee for 2024.

The source said that Priyanka Gandhi has got the experience of working with the party at the state level and had handled the work extensively during the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls last year, where she announced 40 per cent tickets for women and coined the slogan of 'Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon'. The source stated that despite her hard work, the party could not get a fruitful result, but she was able to create a second line of leadership in the politically sensitive state where the grand old party has been out of power since 1989. Priyanka Gandhi, who is also the in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, energised the cadres in the state and its result will be visible in the coming years, the source claimed.