india

Updated: Feb 11, 2019 09:42 IST

A day before her visit to Lucknow, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, called for a new beginning in an audio message circulated by her party.

Rahul Gandhi, her brother and Congress president, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the party’s general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, will accompany Priyanka Gandhi during her first visit to the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) headquarters after her appointment in the party on Monday.

In the audio message, Priyanka Gandhi asked the youth, women and the weaker sections of society to join the efforts to build a “new future”. “I am reaching Lucknow on Monday to meet you all. I hope we all will make a new beginning in politics that will include you all. My young friends, my sisters, and weakest person, all will have a say. Come let’s build this new politics and a new future,” she said through the Congress’s Shakti App.

In another audio message, Scindia said: “I am reaching UP tomorrow. Uttar Pradesh’s youth needs a way for the future and the state needs change. Come, join us to bring about this change.”

During her visit, Priyanka Gandhi will take feedback from party workers ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due this summer.

Read: ‘Jeans in Delhi, saree in rural areas’, BJP neta’s sexist jibe at Priyanka

The UPCC office has been decked up for the high-profile visits. Hoardings welcoming the leaders have come up along the nearly 20km stretch from the Chaudhary Charan Singh airport to the Congress headquarters, and several other parts of the city.

“Uttar Pradesh is feeling privileged as Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is beginning her active politics from here….We can see hoardings with slogans ‘Badlav ki aandhi, Rahul sang Priyanka Gandhi (Winds of change, with Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi)’. And these are the feelings of all partymen. We will accord her an unprecedented welcome,” state Congress chief Raj Babbar said on Sunday.

Although a roadside public meeting is being planned in the Lalbagh area, Priyanka Gandhi and the other leaders may also address party workers from a special vehicle that will carry them from the airport to the UPCC headquarters.

Babbar said Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia will hold meetings with partymen from February 12 to 14. Priyanka Gandhi will interact with partymen of 42 Lok Sabha seats and Scindia will have meetings with workers of 38 constituencies at the UPCC headquarters, he said. UP has 80 Lok Sabha seats, the highest in the country.

“Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya (Scindia) will begin touring the Lok Sabha constituencies of east and west UP, respectively, on February 18,” Babbar said.

Although the detailed programme was still being worked out, people familiar with the matter said the road shows will continue till February 21.

“Priyanka may begin her tour from Anand Bhawan in Allahabad. A proposal for a holy dip at the Kumbh is also under consideration,” said another senior leader said.