On a fire-fighting mission, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka has sent a tough message to local party leaders to end bickerings during a meeting with them late Friday night.
She even threatened to leave for Delhi if they continued to fight over selection of candidates for five assembly seats falling under Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, Congress sources said.
At the meeting, which went late into the night, local leaders gave vent to their anger over the choice of party nominees, said a leader on condition of anonymity.
He said Priyanka asked them to end infighting and fight the election unitedly to ensure victory of official candidates in all the five assembly segments going to hustings on April 28.
"Everything will be all right soon as Priyanka is here," said Amita Singh, Congress nominee from Amethi assembly seat. Her candidature was vehemently opposed by several local leaders.
"There is no resentment now. Priyankaji has resolved everything," Chotelal Tripathi, a local leader, said, admitting that earlier, Congress leaders were fighting among themselves and not against the Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Rebel Congress leader Ashish Shukla is contesting from Amethi as a BSP candidate.
Priyanka, who arrived in her brother Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary constituency on Friday, held a closed-door meeting with local leaders at Munshiganj Guest House. Sources said that local leaders told Priyanka that Amita Singh remained largely inaccessible and was not popular with the masses.
Priyanka, however, succeeded in narrowing down differences between warring factions and told them to fight the electoral battle unitedly.
To take advantage of the situation, the BSP has sent its general secretary S C Mishra to Amethi to campaign in favour of Shukla. He has been criss-crossing villages to woo Dalits and Brahmins.
Later, Priyanka left for Rae Bareli, her mother's Lok Sabha constituency, to chalk out poll strategy there. She will camp there from April 18 till the polling day on April 28, local leaders said.
