A TV channel on Wednesday repeatedly referred to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as Priyanka Vadra, omitting her maiden surname. She is not afraid of the Vadra surname, she indicated, even as she accompanied husband Robert Vadra to the office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) where he was questioned in a case of money laundering. “He is my husband, he is my family...I support my family,” she told reporters at the Congress headquarters, on the day she took charge as a general secretary of the party.
The timing of Mr. Vadra’s appearance at the ED office was his choice and not the agency’s. He could have chosen to appear tomorrow or the day after tomorrow too. But it appears that the couple wanted to make their own point by choosing the timing.
Mr. Vadra has termed the investigation against him politically motivated. The Congress party too has come out in his defence, though he is a private citizen. The BJP wants to make the Vadra name stick to Priyanka, and obliquely associate her with the charges against her husband. She wants to turn the table and tell the world that the BJP is being vindictive, by publicly declaring her support for her husband.
The BJP wants to deny her the Gandhi surname, which remains politically potent. The BJP will also try to show her Gandhi surname as a sign of dynasty politics. She, and the Congress, will underscore, reiterate and showcase that as the sign of a winning legacy.
Priyanka is PGV in Congress circles. Rahul Gandhi used to be referred to as RG, but now he is CP, or Congress president.
PGV has stirred up the political scene already, and all initial calculations about the 2019 elections will have to now account for the new factor. Also to be seen is how PGV and CP coordinate their roles.
AICC general secretaries usually meet leaders from the states they are in charge of as workers from other states are not interested in meeting them. But PGV is no usual AICC general secretary.
Congress leaders from several states want to meet PGV, and many want her to campaign in their respective regions. But PGV will not be campaigning in any other State other than Uttar Pradesh; in fact she will not be meeting party leaders from other States. Unless there is a revision of this, PGV’s position on the extent of her involvement is this, it has been reliably learnt.