Sandeep Singh, Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘gatekeeper’
faces the heat
The powers and influence of Sandeep Singh—Personal Assistant and OSD (depending on whom one asks) to Congress leader and Wayanad Member of Parliament, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra—have been curtailed, with the access of his two confidants, Mohit Pandey and Shahab Menon, who were working with her, completely cut off. Others who have reportedly been affected by this “reshuffle”, are Vidit Chowdhary, Dheeraj Gurjar, Tauquir Alam and Pradeep Narwal.
Singh, who was elected president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union in 2007 on the Left AISA ticket, according to party insiders, dabbled with every party except the BJP before joining the Congress in 2013-14 and then moving closer to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s circle in 2017, eventually rising to become her ears and eyes. Earlier, he was associated with Rahul Gandhi, but since there was space for only one individual, which had Alankar Singh occupying it, Singh moved to the other emerging power position in the party—Priyanka Gandhi Vadra—and soon was recognized for his good speaking skills, political expression, and anti-BJP thought process.
However, with this increasing power, which led to a certain section of the media terming him as the political advisor to Priyanka, Singh allegedly first brought in people loyal to him to man the key posts around her, most of whom were loyal to Singh rather than the Congress. This led to Priyanka becoming inaccessible even to top leaders from Uttar Pradesh, who had to first cross the gates manned by Singh and his men to meet her. Not many were able to do it.
This inaccessibility and the closed-door culture, as Saurabh Bajpai—who has been a long-time Congress sympathizer and someone who has been writing about the issues that ordinary Congress workers were facing due to the “gate-keeping” by Sandeep since 2021—highlighted, led to the creation of distance between Priyanka and other leaders, including many who eventually left the Congress.
Party insiders said that there are rumours that Priyanka was forced to bring Sandeep down from his high-flying position as Rahul was presented with evidence of actions by Singh that would hurt the party’s perception and that of Priyanka. However, no one has been able to verify this, as the said evidence was shared with Rahul and then Priyanka.
Other party insiders, however, confirmed that the Gandhi family had been receiving complaints about Singh misusing his closeness and taking actions that were detrimental to them while stating that the orders for these actions had come from Priyanka. This included not allowing Priyanka to meet media personnel whom he didn’t find to his liking.
The ouster of Singh’s associates from Priyanka’s circle and the lessening of Singh’s influence are among the most talked-about issues in the party circle, with many leaders sharing their happiness with each other over this development. However, as one young leader put it, in Congress’ system, no one really goes out of power; they are just pushed away to a farther orbit temporarily, and when the time is right, they come back close to their sun (leadership) again.
Correspondent