Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday, 1 May, reiterated her stand on not contesting Lok Sabha elections this year, saying it was a collective decision taken by the Party leadership to make room for better campaigning and greater outreach to the masses.
“I had consulted the party workers here (in Uttar Pradesh) and they advised me to not limit myself to just one seat. I am campaigning relentlessly from all the seats here,” Priyanka, who is also the Congress general secretary in-charge for east Uttar Pradesh, said in an exclusive interview to India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai.
On Sunday, 21 April, the Congress leader had said she would contest elections from Varanasi if Congress president and her brother Rahul Gandhi asked her to contest.
“If Congress President asks me to contest, I will be happy to contest, ”Priyanka had told ANI.
The comment stirred a lot of speculation about her possible candidature in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections.
Asserting that she is neither afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor did she run away from Varanasi, Priyanka said "I am here to stay (even if I win or lose in the elections).”
“The day Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will develop the fear of losing will be the day she will lock herself in a room,” the Gandhi scion said amid a cheering crowd.
“I am ready to dedicate my life to this... I will keep fighting (against the BJP) for as long as there’s life left in me,” she asserted.
Priyanka also hit out at the Modi government, saying "A government that is not willing to listen to the concerns of the people who elected it, is not nationalist (by its very nature)."
“The kind of policies that this government has come up with in the last five years just shows that they don't know anything about the issues at hand,” Priyanka said as she pointed towards some of the biggest poll issues, including unemployment and farmer distress, in the ongoing elections.
Rejecting the proposition that there is a tough contest for the Congress in UP, Priyanka said, "we have fielded such strong candidates in UP who will either win the seat or at least reduce the votes cast in favour of the BJP.”
Asked if Rahul is fully prepared to fight this elections, she said: "He (Rahul Gandhi) is perhaps the only political leader in this country who listens to a lot of nasty things about him and yet embraces criticism in the most sporting way possible.”
“He learns from it (the criticism) and respects the people of this country," she added.
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