Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) She was seen in public after a while and, as always, Priyanka Vadra was the cynosure of attention Friday when she sat in the Lok Sabha gallery to hear big brother Rahul Gandhi speak - in the absence of their mother Sonia Gandhi, who is abroad recuperating from a surgery.

Seated in the first row of the visitor’s gallery, Priyanka listened with rapt attention to her brother’s speech on corruption and Lokpal bill.

Wearing a red-printed sari, the 39-year-old Gandhi-Nehru scion tried to avoid the glares of the media and escape journalists, especially when video cameras were on.

Some journalists did manage to speak to her while she was briskly walking out of Parliament House. How was Sonia is doing, she was asked.

“She is doing well and may return soon,” Priyanka said about the Congress president whose absence is being sorely felt by a section of the party in this crisis over Anna Hazare’s fast for a strong, anti-corruption law.

And what about Hazare’s fast and anti-graft protests? She smiled and walked away.

How did she find Rahul Gandhi’s speech? “I completely endorse his views,” the sister said.

Likening her to her grandmother and late prime minister Indira Gandhi, some Congress leaders have been urging Priyanka, who is married with two children, to get into active politics.

She has refused so far leaving the job for Rahul Gandhi.

He is widely seen as being a future Congress president after Sonia leaves the job.

Priyanka runs the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, established in 1991 to promote the former Indian prime minister’s causes.

The foundation also functions as a think tank to guide the Congress particularly in times of crisis.