Priyanka open to campaigning, ‘anything to help’ Rahul

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Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said she was open to the idea of campaigning for the party in election-bound Uttar Pradesh and 'will do anything to help my brother' Rahul Gandhi.

"I am here in Amethi and Rae Bareli. My brother and I will talk to each other. I will do anything to help my brother. I will do whatever he requires me to do," Priyanka, 40, told reporters in Amethi - Rahul's parliamentary constituency - when asked if she would campaign with him.

She has been overseeing Congress election preparations in Amethi and Rae Bareli but has not actively participated in campaigning. However, she said she was open to the idea of campaigning if Rahul asked her to do so.

"I have not decided yet. For now I am going to oversee elections in these 10 constituencies which fall within our parliamentary constituency. If Rahul wants me to campaign, I will campaign," Priyanka said.

Asked if she would join active politics if Rahul so wants, Priyanka eluded a direct reply saying: "He knows to what extent he requires me."

She arrived in Amethi Monday from New Delhi in a chartered aircraft which landed at an airstrip at the Indira Gandhi Flying Academy in Fursatganj, about 35 km from here.

Clad in an orange sari, she was surrounded by enthusiastic Congress supporters, mostly women, who had lined up to cheer her outside the guesthouse of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital run by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation here.

Women supporters shouted slogans of 'Priyanka Gandhi, Zindabad' to cheer her up.

Voting for the 403-member state assembly is to be held in a seven-phase schedule between Feb 8 and March 3.