Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi showered with flower petals by supporters in Amethi on April 12, 2014
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today told NDTV that there was no proposal for her to run against
Narendra Modi in Varanasi, but stressed that her family including brother
Rahul have told her they would whole-heartedly back her if she ever decides to contest an election.
"No one in my family would ever stop me from contesting an election. My brother, mother and husband would whole-heartedly support me if I wanted to contest," she told NDTV. (
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"My brother has expressed to me many times that he thinks I should contest,' she said, adding that she will for now continue to focus on managing the campaigns of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi in their constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
"My decision to not contest is personal. I will only change it when I feel from within I should."
A newspaper today reported that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had indicated that she was open to taking on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi in UP, but the proposal was shot down by senior Congress leaders. (
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Her statement to NDTV today refutes reported concerns that a larger and directly political role for her could overshadow older brother, Rahul, who is fronting the national election campaign for the Congress.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley has said that the newspaper report confirms the "Gandhis are under siege." (
read: Gandhis under siege, Congress desperate: Arun Jaitley)
"The family charisma has faded away...The real solution to the problem is to make Congress a more structured party. The Congress party solution is, if one incumbent in the family fails, the alternative can only be another member of the family," Mr Jaitley said in a blog.