To put Rae Bareli ‘in order’, Priyanka takes charge

After the debacle in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, it seems the Congress has decided to correct the mistakes which were made in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's constituency Rae Bareli.

Two significant steps were taken by the party last week. The first is the active participation of Priyanka Vadra in Rae Bareli about 18 months before the next Lok Sabha election. The second is merging Sonia Gandhi's office as MP with the district Congress office of Rae Bareli for better coordination in the organisation.

On August 1, Priyanka held a meeting in Delhi with district Congress president of Rae Bareli Umashankar Mishra, city Congress president of Rae Bareli Raghvendra Pratap Singh and four former party MLAs from the region — Raja Ram, Shiv Ganesh Lodhi, Ashok Kumar Singh and Ajay Pal — all of whom lost in the Assembly election. Sources said Priyanka asked the local leaders about required changes in the working of the party in order to strengthen its base in the area.

Priyanka also asked the leaders to prepare a "development report" with a list of works needed to be taken up in their respective areas, and submit it before August 8 to Sonia's office. The same day, another meeting has been called by Priyanka and this time Pradesh Congress Committee members and block presidents of the party from Rae Bareli have been called.

"It was a good interaction. We told her that in order to get back the faith of the people, we need separate meetings on development issues with the personal issues of the local leaders from the region. She gave us about half-an-hour and promised to continue such interactions on Wednesdays in Delhi. She asked us to prepare a development plan for our regions, which we will soon be sending," said a leader from Rae Bareli.

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