UP polls 2017: Priyanka Gandhi may lead Congress campaign, Sheila Dikshit likely to be CM face

Priyanka Gandhi is believed to address a 150 rallies across Uttar Pradesh.

UP polls 2017: Priyanka Gandhi may lead Congress campaign, Sheila Dikshit likely to be CM face

New Delhi: With high-voltage Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections just months away, speculations regarding Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit joining the battlefield, are getting rife every passing day.

Dikshit, a Congress veteran, who had refused to be the chief ministerial candidate for the UP polls, has budged to the pressure from the high command and reportedly given her nod to party's wishes, a NDTV report said.

Meanwhile, the report further stated that Priyanka Gandhi will play a huge role in the crucial elections. She is believed to address a 150 rallies across Uttar Pradesh ahead of the state assembly elections in 2017. Traditionally, she has only campaigned in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Earlier reports had suggested that master strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been roped in by the Congress to bring back its golden days in Uttar Pradesh, had favoured Priyanka to take lead in the 2017 state election.

The 2017 UP elections are a litmus test for the Congress vice president as the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party is certain to go all guns blazing to win the state, which sends maximum MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Congress, which once used to win almost all the seats in the cow belt state, has been performing very poorly in the last two decades.

Notably, the BJP had won on 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. Congress won two, Samajwadi Party five and Mayawati's Bhaujan Samaj Party wasn't able to open its account.

Key players in the state – Bharatiya Janata Party led by PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Samajwadi Party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati - are personality driven and have their strong vote bases. Meanwhile, Congress, which has been out of power in the state for nearly three decades, suffers from a leadership crisis.

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