Does Congress need Priyanka to brighten its drooping hopes?

A million dollar question making the rounds currently is will Priyanka Gandhi crusade for Congress party in the upcoming 2014 general elections or not? A segment in the party states that she will campaign across India to take on Gujarat Chief Minister and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and other strong regional parties. People who maintain that they are close to Priyanka say she is still to make up her mind.

The Congress passages are abuzz with enthusiasm that the vivacious and amiable 41 years old Priyanka Gandhi will take the lead role in party’s electoral fight in 2014. The news has come out as a shock to many. The Congress workers believe that Priyanka bears resemblance to her grandmother the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi – who was known as ‘India’s iron lady’ – and she can certainly recover Party’s drooping chances.

The shout for Priyanka, who has until now stayed mostly in the wings of political fray, have been growing louder since the BJP announced Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate. A segment in the party fears Priyanka’s elder brother and the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s capability to guide the party in a high decibel campaign. They believe that Priyanka’s way in will gush a huge section of party workers across India and will create a big threat to Narendra Modi’s battle.

Priyanka has been campaigning for her mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the family strongholds of Raebareli and Amethi. She pays regular visits to these two constituencies. She had also campaigned for her mother in Bareilly in 1999, when Sonia Gandhi took on BJP’s senior leader Sushma Swaraj.

Priyanka is admired by a large part of Congress workers and supporters across India. Many choose her over her brother Rahul, the obvious successor to the Congress throne. But, she has been very ambiguous since the start. In an interview to a news channel in 2012, Priyanka refuted reports of her joining politics or campaigning for the party.

There is no ambiguity that the weight has been building up inside the party insisting her to move out of family strongholds in Uttar Pradesh and steer Congress’s electoral fight across India.

Rahul Gandhi’s fresh announcements cautioning the old guard in the party that the next government would be run by the younger leaders has also led to assumptions over Priyanka’s way in.

An annoyed Congress spokesperson, Ajay Maken, hastily discharged these rumours. He said, “The media is twisting the facts. There is no such plan. We firmly reject such reports.”

According to new reports, the Gandhi family has also refuted such hearsay. The BJP was fast to slam Congress for its so-called dynastic politics. The BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman said the Congress deems in dynastic politics. We all have seen what came out of last UP assembly elections, where Priyanka Gandhi campaigned comprehensively.

It is right that the people will keep contemplating about Priyanka Gandhi’s way into politics till the 2014 general elections.