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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The Congress leadership is keeping the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra campaigning for it in Uttar Pradesh a closely guarded secret with even chief spokesman S Jaipal Reddy professing ignorance of the subject.
When Reddy announced party president Sonia Gandhi's four-day election tour of Uttaranchal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh on Friday, a reporter was quick to ask him whether Vadra would be accompanying her.
"We have no information on that score," replied Reddy, indicating that Sonia Gandhi would have the final say in the matter.
But activists at the party's Akbar Road headquarters did not hide their desire for Vadra to campaign in Uttar Pradesh, insisting that it would greatly boost the Congress electoral prospects.
"Amitabh Bachchan may be drawing huge crowds in UP, but Priyanka has more glamour," remarked Ashutosh Varshney, a schoolteacher from Moradabad. "Priyanka ke samane achhi achhi filmi abhinetri bhi pheeki par jaati hain (Top film actresses pale in comparison to Priyanka)," he gushed.
Varshney recalled that during the 1999 parliamentary elections, Vadra had "people eating out of her hands" in Amethi and Rae Bareilly. "It was because of Priyanka's charisma that Arun Nehru lost in Rae Bareilly and Soniaji won from Amethi by a large margin," he claimed.
"If anybody can match Amitabh's charisma, it is Priyanka," agreed Mangu, who sells portraits of members of the Nehru-Gandhi family at the party headquarters. "Priyanka ka Uttar Pradesh nahin jana Congress ki bari bhari bhool hogi (It will be a major mistake if the Congress does not send Priyanka to UP)."
According to Waseem Ahmed, a former Rajya Sabha member who is now in the Congress, nearly every constituency in Uttar Pradesh has petitioned Sonia Gandhi to rush her daughter as the star campaigner if the party is to make a good showing.
Pointing out that Feroze Varun, Maneka Gandhi's son, was also campaigning for his mother's Shakti Dal now, Ahmed said Sonia Gandhi too would eventually have to bow to the workers' demand.
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