‘Rahul keeping Priyanka away from organisational matters’

After the recent reshuffle in the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a top position in the organisation, but without any responsibility.
This decision has started discussion in the party that Rahul Gandhi wants to keep his sister away from organisational matters.

Sources claim that Priyanka had asserted, in the recently held Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, that the people who are helming important positions in the party should not be replaced or changed, as there is little time left for the Lok Sabha elections and the change could impact the performance of the party. Yet, the following day a reconstituted list of leaders was announced, indicating that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may have had little impact in the formation of the list. A CWC member stated, “The way things happened, it seems as if she was not taken on board during the formation of the list.”

Some party insiders think that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s personal assistant Sandeep Singh, was unofficially helming Congress’ Uttar Pradesh affairs, and was the source of information for her. She was the party general secretary in charge of the state. They claim that she was functioning on the advice of Singh. A party insider said, “Multiple problems were created by the leaders in UP. First, they fought on all the seats in the Assembly elections, spent a huge sum of money but ended up with a lower vote percentage. After that, an overwhelming chunk of the rank and file was dissatisfied with Singh’s functioning as there were several allegations against him. Even after that there was no action against him.”

A senior leader who has been closely observing Sandeep Singh alleged that the latter had started intervening in other state cadres as well and that kind of feedback reaching the high command would definitely not have been liked by the top leadership. However, others say that it would be unfair to place the blame for the UP rout on the shoulders of Priyanka, and claim that in that state as well, it was the Sonia-Rahul duo that took the final decisions. “Priyanka or her PS should not be made a scapegoat in this.”

According to a senior CWC member, there had already been some undercurrents in the party that had created an impression among some leaders that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was “trying to push for her own loyalist for the post of organisation general secretary” (currently held by Rahul loyalist K.C. Venugopal). However, the leader did not see any possibility of the change happening. Another leader added, “Rahul Gandhi is in full control of the party. And most of the leaders know Rahul is committed to the organisation and works smoothly with Sonia Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.”

“If Priyanka would not be allocated any responsibility, she won’t be able to delegate any task to her team at the official level”, a key office-holder pointed out. Also, there would be little to no acceptance of her team among the rank and file once they are removed from their official positions, he added.

It is claimed by detractors that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s team earlier was admonished by the high command in a closed door meeting for participating in a verbal spat against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav who is one of the important constituents of the I.N.D.I.A bloc. A party insider said, “Her team was also in touch with the BSP during the Assembly elections in five states recently and alongside they were consistently speaking against the SP, which had irked the SP leadership. Therefore, they were castigated by the high command for speaking in such a tone against a chief of the main opposition party in UP, Akhilesh Yadav. Now they have been instructed not to speak anything against SP.”

There is speculation in the party whether or not Priyanka is in the good books of Rahul. An official in the Congress said, “She has been given a position in the party, but what position? What will she do? Has it been defined clearly? No. She has a high position but no responsibility. That means officially she cannot do anything.”

Moreover, during the recently held Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, when Kamal Nath (then Congress chief in MP) had refused to give SP seats, one of the advisors of Akhilesh Yadav had said to The Sunday Guardian, “There is low possibility of talks happening between us (Congress and SP) through Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s team. We have requested Akhilesh-ji not to speak against Rahul Gandhi or Kharge just because some local leaders are speaking against you (Akhilesh). And that if you (Akhilesh) have to talk with any Congress leader, it should only be with Rahul Gandhi.”

However, a top source privy to the developments said that Priyanka could get a big responsibility before the elections. “The perception that there is a conflict between the siblings is wrong and whosoever believes in such optics within the party could find themselves proved wrong”, the source said. Congress party insiders are watching developments in the Gandhi family saga carefully for signs of where things are headed.