Sonia, Priyanka to visit Rae Bareli (Lead)

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Over six months after her visit to Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi will be visiting her parliamentary constituency for two days starting Wednesday, party sources said.Sonia Gandhi will be visiting Rae Bareli along with her daughter and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi. During her visit, Sonia Gandhi will hold discussions with party leaders at the Buhemau guest house.Party leaders said the mother-daughter duo will also hold a workshop for party workers, including district and city presidents of the state. The party is likely to discuss Congress' preparedness for the panchayat elections slated later this year.A party source said the main discussion will be on ideology and the party's strategy to deal with the BJP's false narrative about the grand old party. After a long time the Congress is likely to contest all seats in the panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh.Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi will also visit the residence of former party MLA Ajay Pal, whose son allegedly committed suicide recently. Rae Bareli was the only seat that the Congress won in the 2019 general elections in Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 parliamentary seats. The other family bastion of Amethi from where Rahul Gandhi contested went to the BJP's Smriti Irani.Sonia Gandhi had last visited Rae Bareli on June 12-13 to thank the voters for re-electing her from the Lok Sabha seat along with her daughter Priyanka Gandhi.During their visit, Priyanka Gandhi had done some plain-speak. "I did not want to make any speech here, but since I have been made to speak, let me speak the truth. The truth is that this election was won with the help of Sonia Gandhi and the people of Rae Bareli," Priyanka had said."I will find out the names of local leaders who did not work for the party in the (general) elections," she had said.
--IANS aks/arm