KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury make room for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Congress team to President

A Congress delegation will meet President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday to lodge a complaint about the Lakhimpur incident and against continuation of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra despite being an accused in the incident.

Since Rashtrapati Bhavan has cited Covid-19 protocol to reduce the number of delegates by two, in place of the seven Congress had sought, KC Venugopal and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury 'opted out' to accommodate AICC general secretary in-charge of UP Priyanka Vadra in the delegation, it is learnt.

Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, AK Antony and Mallikarjun Kharge will be the other members of the Congress delegation, as Vadra makes her 'debut' as petitioner to Rashtrapati Bhavan, as a follow up of her recent protest and arrest in UP over the Lakhimpur incident. Her inclusion was unavoidable as Congress circles feel that, apart from raising the Lakhimpur issue with Rashtrapati Bhavan, the idea was to show how the Gandhi siblings were leading the show after their mother has taken a backseat, a symbolic message for loyalists in CWC to once again raise a chorus for return of Rahul Gandhi as party chief.