New Delhi: The Congress national spokesperson and convenor of its media cell Priyanka Chaturvedi – who once remarked ‘‘how can you wake up one fine morning and change your ideology’’ – has joined the Shiv Sena.
Among the most telegenic faces of the Congress, she had a meteoric rise after joining the Youth Congress. But she quit her party of 10 years and joined the Shiv Sena in less than 24 hours after she tweeted about “lumpen goons” getting preference in the Congress over those who had “given their sweat and blood”. Then followed a polite resignation letter to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and within hours she had surfaced at Matoshree, flanked by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya.
It is understood that the ‘lumpen goons’ she had objected to were taken back in the party with a nod from Jyotiraditya Scindia, who, along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is in charge of the party’s campaign in UP. With well over 7 lakh Twitter followers — more than even party veterans – Priyanka possibly overreached herself by making demands on the leadership, which is not the Congress ‘culture.
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All was hunky and dory last week when she had lampooned Union Minister Smriti Irani’s academic flip-flop by coming up with a delightful spoof of her TV serial, which she had tiled “Kyunki Mantri Bhi Kabhi Graduate Thi”. For the Shiv Sena, she is obviously a big catch. The Sena can surely do with an urbane polished face, especially on television, if it wishes to re-invent itself as an ‘umbrella party’ – which means different things to different people.
While addressing a press conference at Matoshree, Chaturvedi said, “I am thankful to Uddhav ji and Aditya ji for giving me respect and welcoming me into the party and family. I know I will be held accountable for my past statements and my views and that how I came to this conclusion but I would like to say that this decision of joining the Shiv Sena has been taken after a lot of thought,” she added.
In September last year, some local party leaders had allegedly misbehaved with Priyanka while she was attending a press conference on the Rafale deal in Mathura. The Congress had initially thrown them out but recently, after factoring in the elections, had reinstated them.
