Happy to contest from Varanasi if Congress chief Rahul asks me: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said that she would be happy to contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi parliamentary constituency if her brother Congress president Rahul Gandhi tells her to. "You will find out. If my Congress president tells me to contest, I will be happy to contest," she told India Today.

Several Congress leaders have hinted that Priyanka Gandhi could contest from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, there has been no official announcement as of yet.

When asked about praising her brother Rahul at public rallies, she said, "When people insult him that is accepted but when someone praises him that is criticized. I am his sister, why wouldn't I praise him?"

While speaking about BJP candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's remark on 26/11 martyr Hemant Karkare, Priyanka Gandhi said that we owe our freedom to people like Karkare and any sort of insult to the martyrs is an insult to the country.

"A martyr is a martyr. He has died for the country and given his blood. I have never understood BJP's selectiveness in this case. Like martyr Vasanth Kumar whose family I have come to meet, people like him. We owe our freedom to them, because of people like Karkare. Any sort of insult to them is an insult to the country," she said.

Priyanka Gandhi also said that the Lok Sabha elections are no ordinary elections and these elections are to save the country, where democracy is being undermined.

"I would like to appeal on behalf of all our candidates including UDF candidates. I will appeal to vote for us. We are fighting a greater thing. We are fighting because, in our own country, we are not free to express ourselves. Democracy is being undermined," she said

These are no ordinary elections. This election is to save our country, what we love, our ways of living, all equals, free to express ourselves; a country where rules are imposed in a narrow way where the government afraid of criticism, which suppresses you. We are fighting for a much bigger cause, not only a narrow idea of an election but for a larger idea," she added.

When asked BJP minister Uma Bharti calling her a thief's wife, Priyanka said that the BJP keeps saying such things and also says things about her family, but the Congress's job is to do the work.