Uttar Pradesh Congress Relies Heavily On 'Outsiders' In Its Latest Team Revamp

The Congress on Saturday (1 October) appointed Brijlal Khabri as its Uttar Pradesh unit chief and named six regional chiefs as part of efforts for the 2024 general elections.

Khabri is a Dalit leader who quit the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2016 and joined the Congress. He has been a Lok Sabha MP from Jalaun and Rajya Sabha MP from 2008 to 2014 on BSP's ticket.

However, he has not won a single election on a Congress ticket. He lost in the assembly elections of 2017 and 2022 and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

What is more intriguing is that he was among the 387 Congress candidates who lost their security deposits in the recent assembly elections. He secured a mere 1.29 per cent votes.

Despite his recent poor electoral performances, observers say that the Congress has appointed him as the state president in an attempt to woo the Dalit voters.

It is pertinent to note that all major political parties in the state have presidents coming from the OBC communities. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has Bhupendra Chaudhary, BSP has Bhim Rajbhar and Samajwadi Party (SP) has Naresh Uttam Patel as their state presidents.

In such a scenario, Congress might have felt that there's some void in Dalit leadership in the state, of which it can take an advantage.

The state Congress president post was lying vacant since March after Ajay Lallu resigned taking the responsibility for the party's crushing defeat in the 2022 assembly polls.

The Congress managed to win only two of the state's 403 assembly seats and secured a vote share of a mere 2.33 per cent in the recent elections.

The six regions

To strengthen the organisation, the UP Congress has divided the entire state into six regions -- Pashchim, Braj, Awadh, Bundelkhand, Prayag and Purvanchal -- on a politico-cultural basis.

National Secretaries have already been posted in every zone by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Now each zone will have a president as a part of a 'new experiment'.

Virendra Chaudhary will head the Purvanchal region; Ajay Rai would head Prayag; Nakul Dubey, Awadh; Anil Yadav (Etawa), Braj; Nasimuddin Siddiqui will look after Paschim; and Yogesh Dixit after Bundelkhand.

Anil Yadav is another OBC leader in the UP Congress team, while Siddiqui represents the Muslim community. Giving Siddiqui charge of the Pashchim may suggest the Congress' attempt to win back the Minority vote concentrated in the region.

Rai hails from Varanasi and is a Bhumihar by caste. He lost against PM Narendra Modi in Varanasi consecutively in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019. However, some observers find him capable of attracting his caste votes as he is a five-time MLA.

The other two regional presidents are Brahmins. Dubey was elected as an MLA from Mahona in 2007 but haven't tasted victory for more than a decade. Dixit hails from Aligarh and has unsuccessfully contested an assembly election from the city.

The 'outsider' factor

The highlight of these appointments is that, of the seven named members, only Dixit has been a part of the Congress since the beginning of his political career, while other leaders have joined Congress after leaving other political parties.

Other than the Congress state president, three appointees have joined the party after leaving BSP. Siddiqui was considered a close aide to Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. He served as a minister in her cabinet.

He was also the leader of the opposition in the state legislative council from 2012 to 2017. He left BSP in May 2017 to join Congress in February 2018.

Dubey is the latest entrant from BSP who joined Congress in May 2022 only. He too served as a minister in the Mayawati cabinet.

His appointment can be seen as a breach of Rahul Gandhi's assertion during the Congress Chintan Shivir where he passed a resolution that any member will be given a post only after serving as a worker for five years at least.

Similarly, Yadav joined Congress just last year. He was the national spokesperson of SP. He followed his wife Pankhudi Pathak who joined Congress because SP workers allegedly made derogatory comments about her.

While Rai has been a part of the Congress for a decade, he joined the party after leaving two political parties. He was in BJP from 1997 to 2009 and joined SP in 2009 and Congress in 2012. Chaudhary too joined Congress in 2012 after leaving BSP.

These appointments suggest that either Congress believes in rewarding those who jumped boats for it or it doesn't have a cadre of its own.