Why is Priyanka Gandhi's Varanasi visit politically significant?

New Delhi, Feb 18: With the Lok Sabha elections 2019 round the corner and Uttar Pradesh being the most important state politically, the Congress, which could manage to win just two out of the 80 seats in the state, does not want to leave anything for chance.

Priyanka Gandhi, who used to prefer staying away from the limelight, was last month made Congress' east Uttar Pradesh incharge, and since then she has been frequently visiting the stating, meeting the cadres and charting out strategies for the upcoming elections.

Priyanka along with Jyotiraditya Scindia have been given a mammoth task to revive the Congress in a state that sends 80 representatives to the Lok Sabha. Priyanka Gandhi has 41 Lok Sabha constituencies under her charge. It is indeed a mammoth task given that one of the main reasons for BJP storming to power in 2014 was Uttar Pradesh from where the saffron party won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, decimating every other party in the state.

Her next visit to the state is being planned for later this month (February). Priyanka will visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi as part of her four-day tour during which she will assess the ground situation in the region, reported HT.

Priyanka Gandhi has reportedly sought feedback of development works carried out at the Prime Minister's Lok Sabha constituency in the past five years. So, it is clear that she wants to visit Modi's seat with full preparation and may even give directions to the Congress workers as to how campaign there and take on immense popularity of the Prime Minister.

It would be interesting to see how Priyanka assesses the ground situation in Varanasi. The most important thing for her would be to find out what people feel about PM Modi's development work in his Lok Sabha and whether it has made a positive impact on their lies.

If Priyanka can identify disenchantment among people of Varanasi over development in the region which sent Modi to Parliament then she can really build a strong narrative around it. If she can leverage on it, then it can potentially be a political masterstroke.

It's notable that Rahul Gandhi plunged Priyanka into active politics when his party didn't get a place in the political alliance between bêtes noires Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh (UP) for upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

In the past Priyanka has 'unofficially' been campaigning in Amethi and Rae Bareli for Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. But with her official entry, she will face the ground realities of Congress in UP.