With Priyanka in supportive play and Rahul as pivot, Congress eyes a turnaround, from UP to Parliament

Finally, after two decades of ‘will she, won’t she’, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is going to make her electoral debut now. She will contest the Lok Sabha bypoll from Kerala’s Wayanad, the constituency that her brother Rahul Gandhi has vacated so as to retain his Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh instead.

The development shows – if there was any doubt on that score – that Rahul would be the principal leader of the Congress (and the party’s prime ministerial face, whenever the moment comes). And that Priyanka would play a supportive role. It was imperative for Rahul to identify with the Hindi heartland, especially UP where, but for Rae Bareli, it had got wiped out in the 2019 polls. It is UP which has produced eight of India’s Prime Ministers so far, and has been the karmabhoomi of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Priyanka has all along played a secondary role – though she is perceived by some quarters as more politically savvy of the two siblings. In 2004, it was “a family decision” that it would be Rahul (and not Priyanka) who would come into active politics and contest elections – with mother Sonia Gandhi making way for him in Amethi by shifting to the neighbouring Rae Bareli seat. At that time, the possibility of all three of them standing for elections was considered – but it was Priyanka who had apparently ruled it out. For 20 years, she nurtured both theAmethi and Rae Bareli seats on behalf of her brother and mother.

At one stage, during the recent Lok Sabha polls, there was a buzz that Priyanka would contest from Rae Bareli and that Rahul would fight from Amethi (where he had lost in 2019) in addition to Wayanad. But it was Rahul who chose the relatively safer Rae Bareli as his second seat, with the “family understanding” being