LUCKNOW: Spelling out his priorities after taking over his party’s reins in Uttar Pradesh, the newly-appointed president of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) Ajay Kumar Lallu, claimed that his first priority would be to strengthen the party organisation in country’s most crucial state and change people’s perception towards it.
He said he would raise the issues associated with the common man fiercely both inside the Assembly and on the roads.
Lallu was appointed UP Congress chief on late Monday evening. He has replaced Raj Babbar who had resigned from the post soon after the results of 2019 Lok Sabha elections which witnessed a decimation of the grand old party in the state.
Even the Gandhi bastion—Amethi – also fell to the BJP. Babbar had failed to save his own seat from Fatehpur Sikri.
Lallu, party MLA from Tamkuhi Raj Assembly constituency in Kushinagar, extended his gratitude to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for reposing faith in him.
Meanwhile, the party’s MLA Aradhna Mishra was anointed Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader. Mishra represents Rampur Khas assembly segment in state legislature. Aradhana Misra is the daughter of senior leader and former MP Pramod Tewari.
While talking to media persons, Lallu vowed to revive the party in the state where it has been out of power for the last three decades. It is rather gasping on the margins even below the regional forces.
The AICC also appointed 12 general secretaries and 24 secretaries for the state. Besides, an 18-member Advisory Council to general secretary and the eight-member working group on strategy and planning, comprising senior leaders, has also been set up.
The new UPCC, having a younger and crisper look, has been handpicked by Priyanka Gandhi giving preference to leaders who had been working relentlessly at the grassroots level and were prominently seen in her programmes in the recent past, party insiders said.
The new committee is much smaller than the previous one which had 500 members, they said, adding 45 per cent representation has been given to people from the backward communities, 20 per cent to Dalits, 15per cent to Muslims and 20 per cent to upper castes. Women have also got due representation, they added.