Lucknow: In Uttar Pradesh, national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is handling the Congress party's election campaign, has said why there was no attempt to stop old and young leaders like Jitin Prasada and Lalitesh Tripathi in the party. Asked about several senior party leaders joining the BJP in the last two years in an interview, Priyanka replied, "I felt that they had made up their mind to quit the party not for political reasons but in their personal interest.''

Priyanka further said, 'I thought the kind of battle we were fighting was a very tough battle. Some of them lost the election. Some of them lost their home, which they had been living in for many years. Some of them were facing real issues.' Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, "At least this is what happened to the leaders I had contact with. I didn't feel the need to stop them. Because I felt that the kind of fight we were fighting was extremely difficult. To fight this battle, I needed colleagues who were really hungry for it.''

The party has lost several top leaders since Congress suffered a humiliating setback in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Those leaders who quit the Congress have added to the strength of the BJP. Jyotiraditya Scindia gave the biggest blow to Congress. He had left the party along with 22 Congress MLAs. This led to the collapse of Kamal Nath's government in Madhya Pradesh and the BJP government was again formed under the leadership of Shivraj Singh.

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