Priyanka Gandhi to lead the Congress in UP polls, announce CM name: Khurshid

The Congress needs a renewed push to take back the state from the BJP

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will lead the party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, said senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid. "We will be fighting the upcoming assembly elections under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. She is working hard to ensure that we win. Later on, she may announce the chief minister's face," said Khurshid, reported ANI.

The Congress needs a renewed push to take back the state from the BJP. The Congress was totally decimated in the 2017 state polls winning only seven assembly seats in the 403-member UP assembly polls. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it could manage to hold Rae Bareli Parliamentary seat of AICC chief Sonia Gandhi but lost the Gandhi family's bastion Amethi where Rahul Gandhi was humbled by Union Minister Smriti Irani.

From Thursday, Priyanka was on a three-day visit in UP to review the party's preparedness for the polls. She reviewed the district-wise progress of the party's mass contact programme Har Gaon Congress (Congress in every village). The Uttar Pradesh Congress had launched a mass contact programme on August 19 to cover the state's 30,000 villages and wards where party leaders were directed to stay for over three days during the drive. The Congress general secretary will also finalise the blueprint of party programmes for the next one month.