Priyanka Gandhi Calls For "New Kind Of Politics" Ahead Of UP Visit

Priyanka had made her formal entry in Indian politics last month when the Congress appointed her as a the new AICC General Secretary for UP East. Jyotiraditya Sindia too joined her as the AICC General Secretary for UP West. "Everyone knows that when Priyanka Gandhi is in Delhi she wears jeans and top but dons saree and sindoor when she comes to the constituencies".

At one point at Burlington crossing, Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Scindia and the other leaders had to lower their heads and eventually dismount from the truck to escape dangerously low hanging electric wires.

Indira Gandhi, India's only woman prime minister and known as the "Iron Lady", was criticised for suspending civil liberties for almost two years starting in 1975.

Posters of Priyanka lined the streets of the state capital, Lucknow, and hundreds of Congress supporters, accompanied by drummers, chanted her name as she emerged from the airport with her brother. "The youth of Uttar Pradesh need a roadmap for the future and the state needs change".

Priyanka's appointment as the general secretary assumes significance as the Congress is desperately trying to revive itself in the Hindi-speaking state, which used to be its bastion till the mid-1980s. "I have hope in my heart that together we will start a new kind of politics, a politics in which all of you will be stakeholders - my young friends, my sisters and even the weakest person, all their voices will be heard", said Gandhi through the Congress's Shakti App.

"Come, let's build a new future, new politics with me", Vadra said. His lawyer and Congress have dismissed the charges as politically motivated. If Rahul Gandhi is a failure, Priyanka is also a failure.

From 21 seats in the 2009 general election in Uttar Pradesh, Congress' tally fell to just two in 2014.