Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra once again stole a march over her political rivals in Uttar Pradesh on the Unnao incident, that triggered a nationwide outrage.
While the BJP government in the state was busy in damage control after the rape survivor was burned to death and the Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP leaders still in slumber, Priyanka, who was in Lucknow to chair organisational meetings, rushed to Unnao, about 80 kilometres from here, to meet the family of the deceased.
She not only consoled the family members but on her instruction, her party also provided a financial assistance of rs. five lakh to the parents of the deceased.
Priyanka's visit not only hit the headlines but also generated a lot of public interest in the nearby villages as a large number of people descended there and shouted slogans against the state government.
The SP was the first to wake out of its slumber and its president Akhilesh Yadav embarked on a dharna before the state assembly in protest against the incident.
Not wanting to be left out, BSP supremo Mayawati also rushed to the Rajbhavan and submitted a memorandum to the governor Anandiben Patel slamming the state government's failure to ensure safety of the women.
Pushed on the defensive, the Yogi Adityanath government also rushed two of its ministers to Unnao to meet the family of the deceased and announced an assistance of rs. 25 lakh to the next of the kin of the deceased.
Priyanka had also outsmarted her rivals, when ten members of a tribal community were killed and around two dozen others injured in a violent clash over land in Sonebhadra district, about 500 kilometres from here, in August this year.
Taking her rivals by surprise, she rushed to Umbha village in Sonebhadra and met the kin of the carnage victims. She had to walk on a narrow 'pagdandi' (footpath) between the water filled paddy fields to reach the village.
The Congress leader was earlier stopped from going to the village following which she had embarked on a dharna on the road.
Similarly, it was owing to Priyanka's continuous attack on the state government that the latter was forced to form a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged rape and murder of a 12th standard student in Mainpuri district, about 300 kilometres from here, last month.