It’ll be ‘touch-and-go’: Priyanka on poll results

She compared the mood during the 2004 elections and the current polls and said that “during the last elections,there was the mood that BJP was going to come back to power…..I think this election,it’s really difficult to say.”

Asserting that politics does not draw her,Priyanka,who had recently indicated her willingness to join active politics,said “politics does not draw me because I’ve been through a whole introspective process about it before….. But it’s such a trap because it really allows you to think that you are more than ordinary. And then you realise that you are ordinary……”

“When people ask me about joining politics,they are asking me why I am not standing for elections or getting more involved,” she added.

Priyanka said she would not be able to lead a normal and quite life if she is in politics.

“….And as comfortable as I look in the situation and as naturally as it comes to me,there is also a side of me that makes me extremely uncomfortable making this the choice for the rest of my life,” she said.

Trying to distinguish between being in political arena and being a mother,a role she likes,Priyanka said “…when I am not here in Amethi- and I am here only during election campaigns- I go to Khan market to buy my groceries,look after my kids,make them cupcakes. That’s what I do. I am not involved in the political process. When my help is required by my brother or mother now and then for something or other,then they always do ask me (for help),and I do”,she said and added as a matter of fact.

“I cannot remove the fact that I am born into a political family” and therefore,admitted she would always be a “factor.”

She also dismissed the argument of Congress needing her skills saying “I don’t understand the word ‘need’. The Congress has a strong leadership- it has my mother,it has Manmohan Singhji- he is very strong in his own way: morally very strong. It has many other leaders at the second level,one of whom is my brother.”

Describing her brother Rahul as a “very sophisticated thinker” who has a “brilliant mind”,Priyanka said he doesn’t need her help to move forward with his ideas of new politics.

“My brother doesn’t need me- these are his ideas,not mine. He has gone forward,regardless of being trashed and criticised for them. He has the courage and commitment to do it- he doesn’t need my help.

“No matter what anybody else wants of me- whether it is my parents,my party,my country,whatever,first and foremost,I will be true to myself. I am very happy leading my life the way I want- trying to be a better human being without having to create a revolution or that level of change,” Priyanka said.

Talking about the qualities she admires in her mother Sonia Gandhi,Priyanka said “my mother can completely be herself. And again,she can completely be surrounded by all sorts of praise and sycophancy and be untouched by it. She sees herself for exactly what she is. And I think that is her greatest quality.”

She also attributed her parental skills to her mother saying “she is also an extremely involved mother and everything that I have learnt about parenting is from my parents. The way I am as a parent to my children is exactly like her: she was always there for us.”