Congress president Rahul Gandhi discussed the party’s strategy for the Lok Sabha polls with general secretaries and in-charges of various states at a meeting on Thursday.

It was the first big party meeting for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the newly appointed Congress general secretary for UP. Priyanka Gandhi , 47, was formally inducted into the party last month with her appointment as general secretary incharge for eastern Uttar Pradesh, a crucial part of the politically important state.

Priyanka has been allotted an office adjacent to that of her brother Rahul at the party headquarters. At Thursday’s meeting, she was seated next to Jyotiraditya Scindia, the other general secretary for UP, the western part.

The appointments of Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia just months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections are part of Rahul Gandhi’s strategy to revive the party in UP.

The Congress was left out of the alliance of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh but Rahul Gandhi believes there is political space for the Congress. “It is fluid. My personal view is that actually the Congress has a huge opportunity now because a space is going to open in Uttar Pradesh which is the Congress core space,” Rahul Gandhi said in a recent interview to HT.

Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge were among those who attended the meeting of Congress general secretaries at the party headquarters on Thursday.

Priyanka Gandhi is also expected to attend a meeting of state chiefs and legislature party leaders at the Congress’s war room at 15 Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Road in Delhi on February 9.

First Published: Feb 07, 2019 19:42 IST