LUCKNOW: The Congress party has expressed its intent of course correction in Uttar Pradesh by appointing leaders to the party’s highest decision-making body—All India Congress Committee (AICC) -- mindfully from the state striking a balance between the veterans and newcomers.
Even the caste factor has also been taken into account while making the appointments.
Having just one MP and two MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, the party appointed 170 elected and 53 co-opted members to AICC from the state on Monday ahead of its plenary session in Raipur and the list was released by Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday.
“The party has done a good balancing act by appointing a few veterans and giving due representation to the new blood in the AICC keeping in mind the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said a senior Congress leader.
As per the party insiders, the recommendations of the current UPCC chief Brijlal Khabri have also been taken into account while making the appointments from UP.
The new faces inducted in AICC included Alpana Nishad, the face of AICC general Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s ‘Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon’ campaign ahead of the 2022 UP Assembly polls. Alpana was given ticket from Prayagraj but she failed to make it to the assembly.
Similarly, the party also made Akhilesh Yadav, the state head of the party’s student wing NSUI, a member of AICC. Yadav had played a prominent role in spearheading a long-drawn protest in Allahabad University against fee hikes and also led a hunger strike there.
Some new faces who accompanied Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in his recently concluded Bharat Jodo Yatra have also found a place in AICC. One such young face is Akshay Kranti Veer from Prayagraj. Even the party candidate in 2022 polls from Sonbhadra -- tribal leader Ramraj Gond, who had led an agitation against the Umbha village massacre in 2019 when 11 tribals were massacred by the village head who belonged to Gujjar community over a land dispute, has been appointed to AICC. Gond had contested the 2022 polls from Obra on a Congress ticket but could not win the seat.
A few new faces from Lucknow who made it to the AICC included former corporator Mukesh Chauhan, sitting corporator Mamta Chaudhary, party spokesperson Rafat Fatima, former head of social media Shiv Pandey and Pankaj Tiwari, along with Nakul Dubey, who recently switched over from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Both Brijlal Khabri and his predecessor Ajay Kumar Lallu – have also been included in the list.
Samajwadi Party turncoat Pankhuri Pathak along with Karishma Thakur and Muzaffarnagar district president Geeta Kakran has also been appointed to the party’s prestigious body.
Besides sitting and former MPs, former MLAs and MLCs, also figure on the UP AICC list. They include the party’s sitting MP from Rae Bareli Sonia Gandhi, former UPCC chief Raj Babbar, PL Punia, former MLA Pradeep Jain Aditya, Zafar Ali Naqvi, Nirmal Khatri, Pramod Tiwari, Imran Pratapgarhi and Rajesh Mishra.
The veteran woman leaders from UP -- Mohsina Kidwai, Begum Noor Bano, and Louise Khurshid -- have found a place in AICC.
It also includes sitting MLAs Aradhana Mishra, who is also Congress Legislature Party leader, and Virendra Chaudhary. Moreover, other former MLAs such as Akhilesh Pratap Singh, Ajay Rai, Anugrah Narayan Singh from Prayagraj, former MLCs Vivek Bansal and Harish Bajpai have also been appointed to AICC.