Priyanka Gandhi visits Mayawati, offers condolences for her mother's death

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress general secretary, paid a visit to Mayawati in Delhi on Sunday to express her condolences after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader's mother died of heart failure the day before.

Gandhi is seen in a video published by the party having a brief talk with the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, which ends with Gandhi saying, "I shall return again."

When news of Mayawati's mother's death surfaced on Saturday, the Congress leader took to Twitter to express her grief, "Received the sad news of the demise of Smt. Ramrati ji, the National President of Bahujan Samaj Party and mother of former Chief Minister of UP, Ms @Mayawati. May God give her a place near Him and give courage to the family members to bear the pain during this grief. Om Shanti."

This comes in the midst of a bruising political campaign in the run-up to the UP elections next year. Mayawati slammed Priyanka Gandhi's announcement that women will receive 40% of election ballots as "election drama." She went on to say that if the Congress party was truly serious about inclusiveness, why didn't their administration pass legislation granting women 33% representation in Parliament and legislative bodies?

Mayawati was also chastised by Priyanka Gandhi, who said that she did not raise her voice during the Hathras rape case and the Lakhimpur Kheri riots. "Where is Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati? For the last two years, whether it was the Hathras incident or (recent incident in) Lakhimpur Kheri, it's only Congress which raised issues in Uttar Pradesh," she said.

Tensions between political parties have escalated in the run-up to the UP assembly elections in February 2022, particularly between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition.