Priyanka tours Rae Bareli constituency

Rae Bareli/Lucknow (UP): Faced with a stiff challenge to halt Congress's slide in Uttar Pradesh, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday began a tour of Sonia Gandhi's Rae Bareli constituency to energise workers for the electoral battle for UP scheduled early next year.

Priyanka Gandhi, during her meeting with party workers, said that the Congress this time, plans to declare candidates well in time for the state assembly elections, a party leader said.

Beginning the two-day tour of her mother's parliamentary constituency, Priyanka Gandhi made the first pit stop at a Hanuman temple in Churuva on the Lucknow-Rae Bareli border, and offered prayers.

Rae Bareli, the bastion of the Gandhi family since the days of Indira Gandhi, has five assembly seats out of which two are with the Congress and the BJP each and one is with the Samajwadi Party.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi represents the Rae Bareli constituency in the Lok Sabha. The parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli consists of Bachhrawan (SC), Harchandpur, Rae Bareli, Sareni and Unchahar assembly segments.

In the 2017 UP assembly elections, the Congress registered wins in Harchandpur and Rae Bareli assembly constituencies. Rakesh Singh and Aditi Singh won from Harchandpur and Rae Bareli respectively. BJP's Ram Naresh Rawat won from Bachhrawan (SC) and Dhirendra Bahadur Singh won from Sareni.

Unchahar is represented in the state assembly by Manoj Kumar Pandey of the Samajwadi Party.