LUCKNOW: The Congress top brass may withdraw All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, from UP so that she could focus on states including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where Assembly polls are due this year-end.
Uttar Pradesh Congress may get a new in-charge shortly to prepare the party for the challenge of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. As per highly placed sources of the party, UPCC is likely to get a new in-charge this month.
“As Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be pre-occupied with the party campaign in poll-bound states of MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, she won’t be able to devote adequate time to UP with the Lok Sabha elections inching closer. So she is likely to withdraw from UP and a new in-charge will take her place shortly,” said a senior Congress leader in Lucknow.
As per the party sources, the names of former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat and senior Congress leader Tariq Anwar are making rounds to be appointed as Congress’s UP in-charge.
Harish Rawat is being considered for the post to woo Uttarakhand natives who live in Uttar Pradesh.
At the same time, Tariq Anwar can come in handy in turning the Muslim vote bank back to the grand old party in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. “Some more names are also under consideration,” said a senior Congress leader seeking anonymity.
The decision to appoint a new in-charge of the party unit in Uttar Pradesh has put a lid on the speculations of a change of state leadership. Sources claim that incumbent UPCC chief Brijlal Khabri is likely to continue in his post till the 2024 general elections.
Significantly, after the UP Assembly elections in 2022, wherein, the Congress won just two seats—Rampur Khas and Phephna – Priyanka has not visited the state even once. However, she had led the Congress poll campaign from the front but failed to convince the voters. Congress got 2.37 per cent votes in the 2022 UP Assembly elections against the 6.25 per cent it had received in the 2017 Assembly polls.
In fact, Priyanka had taken the political plunge in January, 2019 and was appointed in-charge of eastern UP. The then Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was entrusted with the responsibility of western UP but after he switched over to the BJP, Priyanka took over the responsibility of the entire state.
If the party insiders are to be believed, the talks over the new party in-charge in UP are in the final round and a call would be taken on the issue after the return of former AICC chief Rahul Gandhi from his US trip.
In the recently-concluded civic polls, the internal bickering in the Congress had come out in the open. As the party fared badly in the urban local body polls, voices of dissent started emanating against Khabri.
The party's high command had overturned some of the appointments made by him in the state and summoned him to Delhi last week.
However, after his meeting with party president Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders, it was decided to let him continue as UPCC chief till 2024, said the party sources.