LUCKNOW: Taking the process of selection of spokesmen for the party in Uttar Pradesh to the next level, state Congress conducted the second phase of written test and interviews both for the old guns and the new breed of leaders here on Tuesday.
Around 21 candidates from across the state had thronged UPCC office in Lucknow to take the test in a bid to represent party on various platforms, especially, in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
"The aim is to constitute a well-informed team of party spokesmen whose level of awareness and knowledge about the organisation and the state in general were put to test", said a senior Congress leader.
Notably, party president Rahul Gandhi will be on a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency on Wednesday and Thursday during which he would meet party's grass root level workers, farmers and also some know figures of the region.
"During Rahulji's visit, a new team of UP Congress Committee is expected to be announced," said another Congress leader seeking anonymity.
"In the second phase, those aspirants who could not appear in the initial round, took the test to become party spokesman in UP," said party leader Dwijendra Tripathi. The target of the party organisation in UP is to come up with a team of spokesmen with an average age of 40.
"However, it does not mean that we won't select those leaders who have crossed the bar. Some spokesmen can be experienced and more than 40 years of age," said UPCC chief Raj Babbar.
Notably, on June 28, during the first phase, around 70 candidates had appeared in written test followed by interview. A panel of Priyanka Chaturvedi, Rohan Gupta and Raj Babbar had grilled the candidates for the position.
The second phase was conducted considering the resentment among party members from districts who could not make it to Lucknow for the test as the party had not made a formal announcement of the exercise.