Priyanka Gandhi charms but may struggle to win votes

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra became the latest member of India's storied Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to enter politics in January, but the boost she brings the Opposition campaign may not turn the tide against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, polls show.

After years of speculation, the charismatic Vadra joined Congress to help its leader, her brother Rahul, in general elections that begin next week, pitching the party and regional groups against Modi's Hindu nationalist-led alliance.

Congress hopes the fourth-generation siblings of a dynasty that ruled India for decades after independence from Britain in 1947 and is still revered by many will help energise its ranks and counter Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the run-up to the election, the 47-year-old Vadra has spent hours campaigning in cars, trucks and even a boat, to woo voters in Uttar Pradesh, which sends more lawmakers to Parliament than any other Indian State.

"There is support for Congress because of Priyanka," said Mahesh Gupta, a shopkeeper in the temple town of Ayodhya, where she visited a shrine in late March. Gupta, who referred to Vadra by her first name, as many Indians do, voted for Modi in the last election, but said he was considering Congress after seeing her campaign.

Vadra, a marquee campaigner for Congress, chose Ayodhya as one of her first tours to take on the BJP in its own bastion. Even so, in the face of the formidable political machine of the BJP which also rules the State, the Congress may be unable to capitalise on her appeal, pollsters and some party leaders said. Vadra's campaigning was getting attention for the Congress it would not have got otherwise, but it did not look like the party was making gains, said Milan Vaishnav, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Last month, polling agencies CVoter and CNX separately estimated the Congress would win just 4 of the 80 seats up for grabs in the State, doubling its tally since the last general election in 2014. That year's sweep of 71 seats for the BJP paved the way for Modi's clear majority in India's 545-member Lok Sabha.