LUCKNOW: At a time when the major political parties are gearing up their cadre for Mission 2024, the Congress remains in disarray in Uttar Pradesh. Going headless for the last six months since the conclusion of state assembly elections, the party is yet to name the president to head its unit in Uttar Pradesh.
However, amid talks to revamp the UP unit, the party is contemplating appointing a team of six working chiefs to assist the UP Congress Committee president. Each of the six working presidents would be entrusted with specific regions of the state like Western UP, Eastern UP, Bundelkhand, and Central UP.
The idea of appointing six working chiefs is one among many strategies under consideration by the party leadership to shore up its prospects in UP in the 2024 general elections.
As per a senior Congress leader, the proposal to appoint six working chiefs to help the UPCC president is under consideration to strengthen the party organisation in the state and the party high command is expected to take a decision over it soon.
The names doing rounds for the appointment of six working chiefs include Pradeep Jain Aditya, Nirmal Khatri, Rajesh Mishra, PL Punia, Ajai Rai, Brijlal Khabri, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Dolly Sharma, and Virendra Chaudhury, the party MLA from Pharenda.
As per the highly placed sources in the party, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is believed to have finalised a list of leaders who could be considered to head Congress’s UP unit and also the six working chiefs to assist him. “The final announcement is likely to be made after the approval of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi to the list,” said a senior party functionary seeking anonymity.
On the other, with the issue of the election of the Congress president under discussion at a party and other forums, some sections believe that the new UPCC chief would be appointed after the election of the president at the centre.
Notably, the UPCC chief Ajay Kumar Lallu resigned owning up to the party’s poor performance in Assembly elections on March 15. Congress’s tally of MLAs has dwindled to just two in UP Assembly from seven. Even AICC general secretary and party’s in-charge of UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also been keeping away from the state for the last six months except for a few hours visit to the state capital on
June 1 to take part in a Navsankalp workshop organised by the party.
Even the district office-bearers too have no directions and are uncertain of their future. There is hardly any representation from Uttar Pradesh in the party demonstrations in Delhi. These agitations are dominated mainly by the leaders from Haryana and Rajasthan.
For the grand old party, which is struggling with leadership and other issues on various fronts, UP seems to have slipped down in the list of priorities as the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ being undertaken by Rahul Gandhi will reportedly cover only two UP districts -- Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr.