Priyanka Gandhi is likely to headline the Congress' campaign for Uttar Pradesh elections, leading 150 rallies across the state in the next few months, party spokesperson for the state Satya Dev Tripathi told The Hindu on Sunday. With this move, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter appears to have been made the face of the party ahead of the 2017 polls, though it remains unclear whether she will be its chief ministerial candidate.

Tripathi said, “It will be a mind blowing campaign." The report in the English daily claimed that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will launch the campaign in July, and declare Priyanka Gandhi its leader. The report also quoted an unnamed Congress leader as saying that Priyanka Gandhi has been in constant touch with Congress' poll strategist Prashant Kishor, and that she is taking an interest in district-level affairs.

Congress was last in power in Uttar Pradesh in 1989, with ND Tiwari as its chief minister. It has strongholds in Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi and party President Sonia Gandhi's Rae Bareli, but little support elsewhere in the state. Senior party leaders have often expressed the opinion that Priyanka Gandhi can provide a crucial breakthrough against the Bharatiya Janata Party, and that she would do well to leave Amethi and Rae Bareli and campaign in the rest of the state.