Bengaluru, Feb 3: Newly appointed Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may launch a blitzkrieg campaign in Karnataka to counter the Narendra Modi-led BJP for the 2019 general elections, if the local Congress leaders here have their way.
KPCC campaign committee chairman and senior Congress leader HK Patil gave enough indication that Priyanka, who has been given charge of the party in eastern Uttar Pradesh, will be roped for party’s poll campaign in Karnataka to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s waning charisma.
The Congress made the announcement two days after the BJP said Modi will launch the party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in Karnataka on February 10 from Hubballi. According to BJP leaders, Modi will address two more rallies this month.
The local Congress leaders strongly believe that Priyanka, 47, has the crowd-puller appeal of her formidable grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi and this will stand her in good stead to take on the orator in Modi.
Although Priyanka has little time to turn around the fortunes of her party in time for the elections as she is likely to replace her mother Sonia Gandhi as party candidate from Rae Bareilly, party leaders said her campaign in Karnataka and other states can go a long way in wooing back the traditional vote banks of the Congress and in tapping into Indira’s long-standing goodwill in the state. “She is also expected to make an impact on younger voters, who make up a significant percentage of state urban electorate,” said some Congress leaders.
In 1999, Priyanka had first campaigned in the mining district of Ballari, where Sonia had contested the Lok Sabha seat against BJP’s Sushma Swaraj. Sonia had then won by a margin of 56,000 votes in a tight contest.
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