Cong constitutes poll panel for UP
To fight the growing dissent between senior and young leaders in Uttar Pradesh Congress, the party brass constituted Uttar Pradesh Congress Election Committee (UPCEC) including almost all senior leaders and present office bearers of UPCC in it on Wednesday.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved a proposal for the setting up of the Pradesh election committee of the UPCC which was confirmed by a statement issued by AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal on Wednesday.
Apart from the 38 members named in the panel, national presidents or chairpersons of AICC organisations or departments from Uttar Pradesh, the state heads of frontal organisations, vice-presidents and general secretaries of UPCC will be its ex-officio members.
The poll committee includes UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, CLP leader Aradhana Mishra `Mona’, senior leaders Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khurshid, Rajeev Shukla, Nirmal Khatri, Pramod Tiwari, PL Punia, RPN Singh and Vivek Bansal.
Former MPs Rajesh Mishra, Rajaram Pal, Rakesh Sachan, Begum Noor Bano, Zafar Ali Naqvi, Harendra Malik, Rashid Alvi, Mohammad Muqeem, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow in 2019, Acharya Pramod Krishnam are also part of the panel.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries Imran Masood, Brijlal Khabri, Sudhanshu Tripathi, BP Singh and Jitendra Baghel are also among those included in the committee.
Lallu said that the Congress would fight the 2022 UP Assembly polls under the leadership of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and stage a comeback in the state after three decades.
Congress functionaries said that the party was prioritising organisation building and continuing with the battle against the Bharatiya Janata party government on the streets in the run-up to the crucial polls.
UP Congress leaders have already organised ‘BJP Gaddi Chhodo’ marches in all assembly constituencies across the state to expose the wrongdoings of the Yogi Adityanath government as well as to highlight how the prices of all essential commodities, including petroleum, have gone through the roof in the BJP rule at the Centre in 2014 and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
Aiming to pep up her party cadre and leaders in the politically sensitive state, Priyanka Gandhi visited Lucknow last month and held meetings with functionaries as part of organisation building.
