New Delhi: When Wayanad MP Priyanka COngress Vadra made her debut speech in the Lok Sabha, there were mixed reactions from her Congress colleagues as also opposition politicians. Some appreciated her style of delivery, poise and the absence of any theatrics for optics. Others saw Rahul Gandhi’s imprint in her references to Adani, caste census and scepticism about the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Soon, the first-time MP again made news: her handbags with the word ‘Palestine’ and symbols of Palestinian solidarity as well as espousing the cause of the minorities in Bangladesh.
Multiple Congress leaders have told ThePrint that there is a dedicated team working behind the scenes, preparing her speeches and planning her political moves—many of them having Left leanings and from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Allahabad University.
A key member in her team is Sandeep Singh, a former JNU Students Union president who hails from Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh. He had joined JNU after graduating from Allahabad University where he got acquainted with the All India Students Association (AISA), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. Sandeep has been associated with Priyanka since 2019.
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But, this is not the first time that Singh’s name has come up as a backroom warrior for the Congress. The former JNU student leader, in fact, wrote speeches for Rahul. And it was none other than Rahul, who entrusted Singh to guide his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka.
In her debut speech, Priyanka mentioned three cases of atrocities against an OBC, a Dalit and a Muslim in Uttar Pradesh. It was meant to be an outreach to what Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav calls the PDA or Pichde (OBC), Dalit & Alpsankhyak (Muslim) audience.
Congress sources told ThePrint that Sandeep had broached the idea to Priyanka, who liked it and chose to mention it in her Lok Sabha speech.
Mohit Pandey, another key member of Priyanka’s team, handles her social media strategy. He had joined Priyanka’s team as the social media head of Uttar Pradesh Congress way back in 2020.
Hailing from UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri, Mohit is also a JNU alumnus. Like Sandeep Singh, Pandey was also a former JNUSU president from AISA. He had succeeded Kanhaiya Kumar of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), affiliated to the Communist Party of India (CPI). Kanhaiya had quit the CPI to join the Congress, but he is not in Priyanka’s core team.
Another member of Team Priyanka is Anil Yadav, an Allahabad University alumnus who handles research work. Anil was also associated with the AISA. He had earlier worked as a research associate at the Giri institute of Development Studies in Lucknow. Yadav was also associated with Rihai Manch, which is a platform formed after a number of terror suspects were arrested from Azamgarh and other parts of Uttar Pradesh during UPA-1. The Manch was formed to assist these accused in their legal battles.
He had unsuccessfully contested from Azamgarh’s Nizamabad assembly constituency in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh polls. Anil operates from the UP Congress headquarters in Lucknow.
Shahnawaz Alam, another member of Priyanka Gandhi’s team, is an All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary. An Allahabad University alumnus, Shahnawaz was also associated with the AISA. He had worked as the party’s minority wing chief in UP.
His role, according to Congress insiders, is to give inputs related to minority-related issues in the team. Like Yadav, Shahnawaz was earlier associated with the Rihai Manch.
AICC secretaries Pradeep Narwal and Dheeraj Gurjar are also considered core members of Priyanka’s team. Born in a Dalit family, Narwal holds a Master’s degree in medieval history from JNU. Recently, when Rahul and Priyanka met Sambhal violence victims at Sonia Gandhi’s residence in Delhi, it was Narwal who had brought those families to Delhi. He unsuccessfully contested from Bawani Khera in the Haryana assembly elections.
Gurjar is an ex-MLA from Rajasthan and was associated with the Congress party’s students’ wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
Multiple Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to said that Rahul was instrumental in bringing most of the young Left student leaders into the Congress fold. While Rahul assigned some of them to her sister after she took a plunge into politics, others gravitated towards her as his close aide Alankar Sawai didn’t “allow them to grow” around the former Congress president.
Not all are gung-ho about the proximity of this circle of student leaders with the Gandhis. “We have spent our entire life in the party but they (Rahul & Priyanka) don’t ask us for any advice. These people come out of college and our leadership (Gandhis) goes to them for advice,” a senior Congress leader from UP told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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