evidence: Flush with a renewed sense of panache post-Lok Sabha election results, she is being described as a star campaigner, a backroom strategist, troubleshooter, and a talisman for the Congress. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is perceived as the real ‘crisis manager’ for her elder brother Rahul Gandhi after he relinquished the Wayanad seat to retain Rae Bareli — one of the most difficult choices of his life. Priyanka will now contest the Wayanad bye-election after resisting to take the poll plunge since she entered active politics in 2019. Though it was anticipated that she would contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi after taking over as the party’s general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh in 2019, she opted out of the fray. After accepting party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s proposal that she should fight Wayanad bypolls, Priyanka said she was simply "lending her hand" to her brother. [...] Priyanka has also displayed immense courage when she was faced with political and personal challenges, said another leader. In 1984, when Priyanka was 12 years old, Indira was assassinated. Seven years later, her father Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a suicide bombing in Tamil Nadu.