42 UP seats under Priyanka Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia gets 38

A map of Uttar Pradesh hung on the wall as newly-appointed Congress general secretary for east UP, Priyanka Gandhi, sat with fellow in charge for west UP, Jyotiraditya Scindia, state party chief Raj Babbar and Ghulam Nabi Azad among others to work out the modalities of the division of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats between her and Scindia, as campaign kicks off in right earnest.

In a day's time, she is expected to be in Lucknow where she is scheduled to have a roadshow, covering about 40km between Amausi airport and UP Congress headquarters.

Priyanka will handle 42 seats in east UP, Scindia 38 in west UP. The kick-off for Priyanka was decided will be from Unnao, where BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar is charged with the rape of a 16-year-old. In Rae Bareli, she is expected to stay put for four days and is scheduled to meet party workers on February 12, 13 and 14 at the party office in Lucknow.


PM Modi-held Varanasi and CM Yogi Adityanath's Gorakhpur are priority seats for Priyanka's meetings with party workers. The schedule has been prepared by a four member team headed by Dheeraj Srivastava, a key Congressman in Rae Bareli.

The constituency-wise meetings lined up suggests the Congress seems to be in no mood to offer a walkover to any party, including the Mayawati-Akhilesh combine unlike the earlier perception that Congress may field "soft or dummy candidates" in those seats where the SP-BSP candidate is strong.

Constituencies on PGV's (as she is called in the party office) campaign watch stretch till Salempur, while Scindia is the in-charge between Kanpur and Ghaziabad in west UP.