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Updated: Jan 25, 2019 14:35 IST

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday spoke at length about the timing of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s decision to take the political plunge and about his relations with his sister saying that they had ‘been through hell together’.

Speaking in Bhubaneswar during The Odisha Dialogue, his interaction with a group of intellectuals, Gandhi said the decision on the timing of Priyanka’s political debut was taken some years back. “I kept on asking her to join politics, but her pushback to that was her children were young and she needed to be with them.” The Congress president added that she decided to enter politics now that both her children were grown up.

Follow live updates here: ‘Talk of Priyanka entering politics going on for years’, says Congress chief

Recounting the assassinations and political upheavals the Gandhi family has endured, the Congress president said that the killings of his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi and political ups and downs had brought the siblings closer. “We have been through hell together. Everybody thinks all is easy for us but we have seen some very hard situations. That has brought us together.”

Putting in perspective his equation with his sister, Rahul Gandhi, who is one year older to her, said: ”If we are sitting in different rooms and you ask us the same question, 80% of the time you will get the same answer.”

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Gandhi said the siblings always believed in giving space to each other and there was a constant given and take between the two when it came to their personal relations. ‘We have lot of conversation”, he added.

Talking about her political role, Gandhi said her main job is to revive the idea of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh. No decision has been taken about her role outside the state, he added.

‘We give each other space’: Rahul on relationship with Priyanka Gandhi

With just a few months to go for the general elections, Priyanka Gandhi was appointed the general secretary in charge of eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, the state that send 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and plays a crucial role in who forms the government at the Centre.