Priyanka Gandhi in Lucknow: Packed schedule awaits Congress General Secretary on UP visit

Newly-appointed Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi will hit the campaign trail in battleground Uttar Pradesh with a roadshow in Lucknow on Monday.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. (Getty images)

LUCKNOW: Newly-appointed Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi will hit the campaign trail in battleground Uttar Pradesh with a roadshow in Lucknow on Monday. She will be accompanied by brother and party President Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders. This will be Priyanka Gandhi's maiden visit to Uttar Pradesh after she formally entered politics last month. She will arrive in Lucknow with Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress general secretary in-charge for western Uttar Pradesh on Monday in a charted plane at around 11 am. They will be welcomed by party workers and leaders at nearly 37 points on the 12 km-route from the airport to the Nehru Bhawan Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) headquarters. All roads leading to Congress’s office in Lucknow from Amausi Airport are on Sunday decked up with hoardings, banners and posters welcoming the three leaders. The roadshow is expected to begin from the airport and to culminate at the party office, weaving its way through important places in the city like Charbagh railway station, Hussainganj, GPO, Raj Bhawan round about and Hazratganj. The three leaders will garland the statues of Dr BR Ambedkar, Mahatama Gandhi and Sardar Patel at GPO in Hazratganj. A team of the Special Protection group (SPG) is already camping ahead of the visit and is finalising the security plan, which includes sanitising the area where the Priyanka will move around in the office. A room which will double up as her office has also been readied for Priyanka, who will stay in the city till February 14. In-charge of 42 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi will meet senior leaders and office bearers of the party constituency-wise during her visit. Each constituency is being allotted a different time to meet the senior leadership, during which all issues related to their areas will be discussed in detail. Priyanka and Scindia will hold meetings for around 12 hours daily during their visit. The party in Uttar Pradesh is seeing the visit as the virtual launch of the Congress campaign in the state, ahead of the coming Lok Sabha elections.