Will she or won’t she? That is the question about Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra finally taking the electoral plunge. The speculation has persisted in Indian political circles for quite some years now.

Now, with fresh parliamentary elections a couple of months away, the same question is once again doing the rounds, especially after the seat-sharing deal struck between Congress and Samajwadi Party in the key state of Uttar Pradesh.

As per the deal, Congress will contest 17 seats in the state including Rae Bareli and Amethi which have for long been bastions of the Gandhi clan. Both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had in the past won from there. Sonia Gandhi, the Italy-born ‘bahu’ of the Gandhi clan, emerged triumphant from Rae Bareli in the previous Lok Sabha constituency in 2019. Rahul too had in the past won from Amethi.

But with Sonia going public with her goodbye to electoral politics and getting elected to Rajya Sabha, upper House of parliament, and Rahul having changed his Lok Sabha seat to Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala after his defeat against BJP’s Smriti Irani in Amethi five years ago, speculations are rife as to who Congress will field in Rae Bareli and Amethi. The speculations have become intense after Sonia wrote a letter laced with emotions to voters of Rae Bareli. The Indian media interpreted it to be a hint that Priyanka might contest from Rae Bareli.

A few days ago, a new twist was added when Priyanka joined her brother Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Moradabad in the western part of UP when she addressed a rally there and addressed the people there as “sasuraalwalon” since her in-laws’ hail from Moradabad, a sugarcane- growing belt.

A section in Congress feels Priyanka’s contesting from Rae Bareli or Amethi would send the right signal that the party has not turned its face away from UP after its abject failure in assembly polls in 2017 and 2022 and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when she was the party general secretary in charge of its campaign there. The assessment in the party is that a high-profile party candidate in Rae Bareli and Amethi would indicate Congress’ resolve to bounce back in the huge Hindi heartland region after its defeat in assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.