NEW DELHI: Congress is on the lookout for a Brahmin face to lead the Uttar Pradesh Congress following a rout in recent assembly elections keeping in mind the anti-Brahmin image of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
During several meetings held under the leadership of general secretary in charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to discuss revamping of the state unit, senior party leaders have expressed that getting a Brahmin (who constitute 14 percent of the population in UP) face, would help the party.
“Congress had a grip over Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh some three decades back. It used to be the first choice of Brahmins but over the years several of the party's Brahmin faces switched to BJP and the entire community now stands with the BJP. Adityanath, a Thakur, has been seen as anti-Brahmin, and having a Brahmin face as state chief would send a positive signal among brahmin samaj,” said a senior UP Congress leader, who has been part of the recent meetings.
Another UP Congress leader said that the discussions are around having a Brahmin face as state chief and 4 working presidents from other prominent castes to balance the caste equation in the state. Sources said that a decision on UP Congress is expected after the party's Chintan Shivir in mid-May.
Some of the party’s young Brahmin faces – Jitin Prasada and Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, had quit the party in the last year and too sent a wrong message just before the UP assembly elections. Former UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi had also joined the BJP in 2016.
The prominent Brahmin faces now left in the party are former Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, his daughter and sitting MLA Aradhana Misra, and former Varanasi MP, Rajesh Mishra among few others.
Of the five states where elections were held recently, Congress has already announced organizational revamp in four states – Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur but UP.
After the party’s debacle, former union minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh was assigned the task to review the reasons for the defeat of Congress in the UP. “He is still holding meetings with state leaders and party workers and is yet to finalise his review. Any decision is expected only after that,” the sources added.
Names of former bureaucrat PL Punia, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community and headed the party’s UP poll campaign committee, former MP Pramod Tiwari, former Ayodhya MP, and former state chief Nirmal Khatri and, former Varanasi MP Rajesh Mishra are doing rounds for the top job. It has been vacant after Ajay Kumar Lallu resigned from the post following the party’s debacle in the UP elections.
“This time we are looking to have a president who is only focused on organizational work. Lallu, worked for the party, but during elections, he was grounded to his constituency (Tamkuhi Raj) and there was none to look after the entire state,” said a UP Congress functionary.