Rahul Gandhi talks about tasks given to Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi

A day after announcing the appointment of her sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Madhya Pradesh MP Jyotiraditya Scindia as AICC general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East and West respectively, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he has given them the target of ensuring that the party forms the next government in the state.

"Priyanka and Scindia have been given a target. That is to form a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh in the next election by defeating and wiping out the BJP,” the Congress president said while addressing a rally in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi.

Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to his home turf Amethi, said the Congress will also fight the up coming Lok Sabha polls with ‘full strength’. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress chief said that he never talks about 'BJP-mukt Bharat'.

“Unlike PM Modi, I do not talk of a 'BJP-mukt Bharat' but speak with respect," he said, referring to PM Modi's call to ‘free’ India of the Congress. His two-day visit to Amethi had coincided with the formal entry of Priyanka Gandhi in politics, after years of speculation on whether she would take the plunge.

Earlier in the morning, Gandhi visited a local Shiva temple after meeting party workers at a guesthouse. Addressing a public meeting in Salon area, he termed himself, his sister and mother Sonia Gandhi as ‘soldiers’ for the people of the constituency.

While Rahul Gandhi won the 2014 parliamentary elections from Amethi, Sonia Gandhi is an MP from adjacent Raebareli. Both fall under the turf carved out for Priyanka Gandhi. Narendra Modi's Varanasi constituency and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's bastion Gorakhpur are also in eastern UP.

Rahul Gandhi reiterated he has full respect for leaders like Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The SP and the BSP recently forged an alliance for UP in the coming Lok Sabha polls, keeping the Congress out of the pact. The Congress president said the prime minister had not kept his poll promise on creating jobs and suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party government had slowed development in his constituency.

With PTI Inputs