Rahul Gandhi assigns duties to new zonal presidents

Taking an active role in the restructuring of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh,AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday allocated responsibilities to newly-appointed eight zonal presidents after one-to-one meetings with them in Delhi.

Taking an active role in the restructuring of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh,AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday allocated responsibilities to newly-appointed eight zonal presidents after one-to-one meetings with them in Delhi. Aiming at enthusing its youth wing,Rahul also appointed eight young faces as vice-presidents under these zonal presidents,most of them with a Youth Congress background and had won the recent Assembly election against all odds.

The newly-formed zonal committees were handed over maps of their respective zones and given three months to establish the organisation till the grassroots level. During the meetings,the zonal presidents were told that a review meeting would be called by Rahul personally after three months. Rahul also met the new state president,Nirmal Khatri,and Congress Legislature Party leader Pradeep Mathur.

Taking a lesson from the past,Rahul ensured that no leader was made president of the zone to which he belonged,or from where he had been elected in the past,so that they can be kept away from groupism and lobbying existing within the organisation. However,vice-presidents have been selected from the same regions.

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Zone one consists of western UPs districts including Moradabad,Nagina,Aligarh, Bulandhshahr,Meerut,and Sambhal. MP Rashid Masood is its president and Pankaj Malik,MLA from Shamli,is the vice-president. Zone 2 has Saharanpur,Kairana,Ghaziabad,Mathura,Agra,Ferozabad; MP Briejndra Singh is president and Pradeep Chaudhary,MLA from Gangoh seat in Saharanpur,the vice president.

Congress MP from Akbarpur Rajaram Pal has been given responsibility of Zone 3 which includes most of Bundelkhand while Gyadeen Anuragi,MLA from Rath in Hamirpur district,has been made the vice-president. Banda MLA Banda Vivek Singh has been apointed president of Zone 4 which includes the Varanasi-Allahabad zone,with Ruby Prasad,MLA from Dudhi,as vice-president.

Anugrah Narayan Singh,MLA from Allahabad North,has been given responsibility of Zone 5 having districts of eastern UP like Gorakhpur,Maharajganj,Deoria,Ballia,Kushinagar,Azamgarh and former NSUI national president Nadeem Jawed,who recently won the Assembly election from Jaunpur,is the vice-president. Union minister of state RPN Singh is president of Zone 6,covering Bahraich,Shravasti,Gonda,Basti,Faizabad,Barabanki among others and Mukesh Srivastava,a young congress MLA from Payagpur,is the vice-president.

P L Punia,MP from Barabanki and chairman of SC Commission,is president of Zone 7,which includes Badaun,Aonla,Bareilly,Pilibhit,Sitapur,Hardoi,Sahajahanpur,and Lalitesh Pati Tripathi,MLA from Marihan in Mirzapur,is the vice-president. Union Minister Jitin Prasad has been given responsibility of Zone 8 which includes Lucknow,Kanpur,Etawah,Mainpur,Kannauj,while Aslam Rainee,who had lost the Assembly election in Bhinga by a small margin,is the vice-president.

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