NEW DELHI: Trouble seems to be brewing in the UP Congress under in charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with the expulsion of 10 senior state unit leaders for indiscipline.
Central leaders feel the issue could have been handled differently and the expulsion will send a wrong signal among people in a state where the party is trying to start from scratch.
A senior Congress leader in the party expressed concern that half of the expelled leaders are Brahmins and the decision won’t go down well in the caste, which was loyal to the party under Indira Gandhi.
Brahmins constitute 11 per cent of the total population in UP which is the third-largest community after Dalits (21 per cent) and Muslims (18 per cent).
The expelled leaders from the caste include former state ministers Ramkrishna Dwivedi and Satyadev Tripathi, former MLAs Bhudhar Narayan Mishra and Nek Chandra Pandey and former state president of the Youth Congress Prakash Goswami.
“When we are building the party from grassroots, we have to keep in mind the caste equation. Brahmin is an important community and when you are looking to woo them back, what message expelling these leaders will send to the folks,” said a Congress Working Committee member, who hails from UP.
The party veterans have been expelled for criticizing the decisions taken by the top leadership to revive the UP Congress.