Allahabad: Reminding hundreds of her grandmother late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with her spartan sartorial sense and a quintessential wave, Congress general secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra kicked-off her three-day ‘Ganga Yatra’ ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, aboard a boat from Sangam on Monday.Before boarding the boat from Sangam, Priyanka offered prayers at the ‘immortal tree’ ‘Akshayvat’ at Allahabad Fort and the Bade Hanuman temple, where she also performed an aarti.The Congress scion set out for a busy day wearing a green and yellow saree, an hour behind schedule. As she offered milk and flowers to the deity at Bade Hanuman temple, local residents couldn’t help recall her grandmother’s visit to the shrine on September 25,1979. Like her granddaughter, Indira Gandhi had also offered prayers at the famous temple.On reaching Sangam, Priyanka made her way to the boat through the posse of party workers who had gathered there, shaking hands, greeting and smiling all the way.Congress’s star campaigner drew comparisons with her late grandmother from many onlookers as she went about hugging excited women party workers and mingled with the cadre.When she finally reached the ghat, Priyanka sprinkled water from Ganga on herself and offered prayers to the river.While she interacted with the locals and vendors present at the ghat, security personnel had a tough time keeping the eager crowd in control.Other who couldn’t get past the security, kept busy while shooting videos and clicking photographs on their mobile phones.Moving through the crowd, Priyanka broke the security cordon several times.In one such instance, she bent down to check a polythene bag kept for collecting garbage. On finding a few coconuts thrown on the ground by devotees, she picked them up and kept them aside else someone might get hurt. Minutes later she sat on the boat, anchored on the river bank, without putting on a life jackets. Smiling and talking to the people sailing on other boats, she arrived at a of the platform at the mid of Sangam and interacted with few people.The boat carrying the Priyanka and other party leaders sailed towards Arial ghat, the opposite side of the bank of Yamuna. At Arail Ghat, she went back to her car and set out for Manaiya, the ghat on the banks of Ganga and around 20 kilometre downstream of Sangam. Among the crowd was a group of local women had been waiting for hours for the Congress leaders. “We are here because this lady took the pains to travel on a boat and come so far to just to meet us. Neta aate hain sadak se ghum ke chale jaate hain, yaahen to Priyankaji hum sabhi se milene khatir itni takleef utha rahi hain (Politicians come to meet people present on the road and go back. Here, Priyankaji is taking so much trouble just to meet us),” said Girija Devi, one if the local women.

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