Lucknow: Congress president Sonia Gandhi made her first visit to Amethi, after her son and former president of the party Rahul Gandhi, lost the general election from the Gandhi bastion last year.

Sonia Gandhi visited Amethi with her daughter, party general secretary and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is politically active in the state, after her brother lost the Amethi Parliamentary seat.

However, Sonia Gandhi’s behaviour with Amethi people was quite surprising as she seemed annoyed with the people of the region for Rahul Gandhi’s defeat during her visit to the erstwhile Gandhi-family stronghold.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost his parliamentary seat from the region in an unprecedented defeat by saffron party candidate Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha polls 2019 by a margin of over 55,000 votes.

However, Rahul Gandhi won in Wayanad, Kerala with a huge margin of over 430,000 votes.

Perhaps, Rahul was aware of a likely defeat and the ground realities of Amethi during his previous stints, prompting him to contest from two seats.

Sonia Gandhi met with Congress workers in Raebareli in her first visit to the region after Lok Sabha poll results were declared last year.

Sonia Gandhi also did not appear herself during Lok Sabha election campaign in 2019 in her constituency but still managed to win the seat comprehensively.

Lok Sabha poll results were very disheartening for the party in the state because Congress managed to win only one seat out of the total 80 seats. Party vote share has also been shrinking election after election in the state and now Congress vote share remains at a meagre 6.36%.

In an attempt to boost the confidence of workers, the party’s UP state unit had conducted a two-day workshop to revamp the party in the state and prepare itself for the fight in the 2022 Assembly election.

Congress leadership knows very well that the road ahead is not smooth for the party, but Priyanka and new state leadership is trying hard to increase its presence among the masses by raising local issues and staging protests over the state government.

Priyanka Gandhi also arranged training programmes for the Congress workers, who were recently appointed as district heads of the unit in 36 cities of the state. They were trained to become more proactive while connecting with people.

However, Sonia Gandhi, during her Amethi tour, expressed her unhappiness with the people of Amethi and maintained distance with the local masses. She even seemed reluctant in meeting party henchmen. While many senior Congress members were seen waiting by the roadside from Raebareli to Amethi, both Congress leaders were trying to avoid the workers as well as the media.

The Congress leaders have not been too bothered to establish contact with the people of Amethi after Rahul Gandhi’s loss in the Lok Sabha election.