Priyanka Gandhi will decide if she wants to be CM candidate for UP polls: Salman Khurshid

A week after the Congress party sounded the poll bugle in Uttar Pradesh, senior leader Salman Khurshid weighed in on the party's chief ministerial face. During a visit to UP's Prayagraj on Saturday, Salman Khurshid stated that the UP Assembly Elections 2022 will be fought under the leadership of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who would decide if she also wants to be the CM face for the party.

"Congress would contest the UP assembly polls under party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s leadership & she herself would decide on the issue of whether she would be party’s chief ministerial candidate or not," Salman Khurshid told reporters in Prayagraj. 

The decision to fight the UP Polls under Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's leadership had been announced by Salman Khurshid last week, during the former's visit to Rae Bareli. He had also revealed that the grand old party will not form an alliance with any party for the elections. Priyanka Gandhi will take a lead for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, but the face for the CM candidate is not clear as of now, he had said. Moreover, the Congress would field candidates for all 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tours Rae Bareli

On September 12, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had commenced the tour of interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s bastion, Rae Bareli to boost the morale of the party workers and take note of the ground situation ahead of the state polls. She began her two-day tour of Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency by paying a visit to a Hanuman temple in Churuva and offering prayers. She was greeted with garlands by party leaders and members upon her arrival.

Senior leaders of the Congress have been touring various constituencies in the run-up to the UP polls, to know the ground situation and problems being faced by the local people. The manifesto of the Congress party would include the voices of the common people and the problems being faced by the locals, as per Khurshid. "The party members have been visiting assemblies and trying to contact people and know problems being faced by the locals," he said.

(With Agency Inputs)