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Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, February 13
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is literally said to be burning the midnight oil in an attempt to help reestablish her party in the state that sends crucial 80 members to the Lok Sabha.
It is learnt, the newly appointed All India Congress Committee eastern Uttar Pradesh general secretary, had a marathon session with party workers at her office in Lucknow where she gathered feedback the whole night till early in the morning.
Both the AICC General Secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh have set high standards of work culture for the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday by putting in 16-hours of interrupted work.
While eastern Uttar Pradesh in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrived at 1 pm and continued her back to back round of meetings till 5.30 am this morning. On the other hand, in-charge of western Uttar Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia started at 10.30 sharp and continued till 1.30 am.
On the first day of their interaction with constituency level party workers they attempted to gauge the ground situation and the strengths and weaknesses of the Congress party. Priyanka left many senior leaders tongue tied as they were unable to answer her simple questions.
A senior leader from Lucknow was stumped at her simple questions like how many voters were there at his home booth and how many votes did the Congress poll during the last election? With a smile she asked him to do his homework properly.
The largest number of people had come from Lucknow and had to be divided into two groups. Interestingly, at the end of the discussion both groups wanted her to contest from Lucknow, an offer she turned down saying that she had come to help others win and not fight herself.
From the local leaders she wanted to know the specific problems of their constituency, which were not present in other constituencies and on how many issues had they mobilised a peoples’ movement for redressal of those problems. Arriving at the Nehru Bhawan from Jaipur around 1 pm she continued this marathon back-to-back meeting till 5.30 am and met representatives from a dozen of the 41 seats assigned to her.
While she heard out their grievances against each other she politely told them that this was not the time to dwell on such issues. Her mantra was to connect with women and youth.
The focus of her conversation was to concentrate on booth level preparation as there is where battles are won and list. She was keen to know how many booth-level meetings had been conducted by the various aspiring candidates.
Seats covered by Priyanka on the first day were Unnao, Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Fatehpur, Barabanki, Kaushambi, Phulpur and Allahabad. Scindia also continued his marathon meetings and covered Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore, Rampur, Moradabad, Nagina, Sambhal, Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat.
He also indicated to appoint constituency in-charge in the places under his supervision for closer coordination.
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