With the newly-appointed Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president, Brijlal Khabri, and its six regional chiefs – Ajay Rai, Yogesh Dixit, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Virendra Chaudhary, Nakul Dubey and Anil Yadav – set to imagine their places of work subsequent week, there appears to be rising resentment amongst many state unit activists over the purpose that the majority of those new appointments are usually not initially from the social gathering, whilst they’ve raised the query why the All India Congress Committee (AICC) management didn’t entrust the long-standing cadre with the duty of reviving the social gathering via these management positions.
Many among the many UP Congress rank and file really feel that the collection of the above names have been “rushed via” with the October 17 AICC presidential election in thoughts because the rejigged UPCC is now set to pick out the state social gathering delegates who would vote within the election.
On its half, the Congress has tried arduous to undertaking the way it has tried to stability the caste equations in forming the brand new UPCC management workforce by specializing in its previous social mixture – Dalits, Brahmins and Muslims – highlighting that it has now a Dalit state chief whereas having two Brahmins, two OBCs, one Muslim and one Bhumihar leaders because the social gathering’s regional heads.
A bit of the social gathering leaders and staff nevertheless declare that they don’t really feel “any connection” with many of the new UPCC leaders who had initially been with different events, particularly the BSP.
Some social gathering leaders additionally identified that regardless of its women-centric marketing campaign within the UP Meeting polls earlier this yr, which was spearheaded by AICC common secretary Priyanka Gandhi, and talks about encouraging ladies management within the state Congress, the social gathering has not given any illustration to ladies leaders among the many new UPCC workforce.
“UP Congress leaders would have accepted appointing Brijlal Khabri because the social gathering chief to ship the message to the Scheduled Castes throughout the state, notably Jatavs, earlier than the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However it’s arduous to simply accept that the Congress management couldn’t discover its personal cadre leaders to steer the social gathering within the areas as effectively,” mentioned a celebration chief.
“Leaders like Nakul Dubey (ex-BSP minister) had joined the Congress simply earlier than the Meeting polls and so they have been made its Brahmin face. Leaders like Anil Yadav from Etawah might need been a district president there, however stays a little-known Yadav face throughout the state. The unit rejig has made it clear that social gathering is simply doing formality and that reviving the cadre is its least precedence,” the chief charged.
Nonetheless, some Congress leaders additionally really feel that the social gathering has picked Khabri, a identified Dalit face and ex-BSP MP, because the UPCC head to ship out a bigger message not simply throughout UP but in addition nationally about its Dalit outreach as a part of its bid to revive its previous social mixture that had been additionally efficiently achieved by the BSP as soon as prior to now though the latter couldn’t replicate it in subsequent polls.
These leaders additionally say that the UPCC rejig was necessitated as a result of the erstwhile state management did not energise the social gathering unit. They be aware that Khabri has been working for the social gathering for the previous six years and that Virendra Chaudhary, the MLA and OBC chief, Anil Yadav, the Etawah district chief, or Nasimuddin Siddiqui, the pary’s communications head, are distinguished leaders from their communities.
Considerably, there was little resentment within the Congress circles over the choice as regional heads of former MLA Ajay Rai, who had contested towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency, or that of Yogesh Dixit, who has risen from the Youth Congress to his present publish. Rai has been preventing for the social gathering within the Varanasi area for a very long time.
Nonetheless, many state Congress activists are shocked over the collection of Nakul Dubey as a regional social gathering president. “One of many takeaways within the collection of these leaders is that loyalty doesn’t rely within the social gathering. How can we count on such new leaders to know in regards to the cadre – we now have little hope,” mentioned an offended social gathering chief from Lucknow, including “Vinash kale viprit buddhi (As doom nears, one’s mind fails)”.