Priyanka to hold virtual meet with UP Cong leaders to strategise for polls today

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will hold a meeting with senior Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders on Monday as the party seeks to intensify organisational activities in the run up to the assembly polls next year.

Preparations for the assembly polls, strategy as well as ways to energise cadre will be on the agenda of the virtual meeting, sources said.

The development comes after a meeting between Priyanka Gandhi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who sources said is likely to play a key role in preparing the Congress organisation in Uttar Pradesh for the assembly polls with a focus on strategising and booth management.

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Baghel, who had played a crucial role in the run up to the Assam Assembly polls with his team carrying out extensive booth training of party workers, met Congress general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi at party chief Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence.

Last week, Congress' Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu had expressed confidence that his party has the capacity to fight the elections without aligning with either of them and form the next government on its own.

His remarks had come days after the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party ruled out forging any major alliances for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

In an interview with PTI, Lallu had also said the Congress would fight the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh next year under Priyanka Gandhi's "dekh-rekh (supervision)", and that under her leadership, the party would make a comeback in the state after over three decades.