Sushil Kumar Modi said BJP is not at all worried about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's appointment. (File)
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said today that the BJP would "gain" in Uttar Pradesh from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's political debut, claiming that the move was aimed at "threatening the SP-BSP alliance" with the spectre of a split in votes.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed as Congress's general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East.
Mocking Congress's decision, Sushil Kumar Modi said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's appointment would bring alleged corruption scandals against her husband Robert Vadra to "centre-stage", which would be to the NDA''s benefit.
"The BJP is not at all worried. Why should it be when her entry is only going to help us. The Congress has brought in Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to threaten the SP-BSP alliance. It is a desperate attempt to make Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati rethink their strategy," Sushil Modi said.
As per the seat-sharing formula, the SP and the BSP will contest 37 seats each in UP, which has a total number of 80 constituencies. Out of the six that remain, only the Congress citadels of Amethi and Raebareli have been left for the party, while four have been assigned to Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Till now, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had confined herself to campaigning in constituencies of her brother Rahul Gandhi. With her appointment as general secretary for the politically-important UP, speculations are rife that the Congress has adopted an aggressive strategy to confront the BJP.
Eastern UP includes Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency besides other BJP pocket boroughs like Gorakhpur - a seat that the party has won several times.