The All India Congress Committee Tuesday announced Ajay Kumar Lallu as chief of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. The committee, sources said, was finalised by AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and had been formed keeping caste equations and young faces in mind. While the State President Ajay Kumar Lallu, a two-time MLA from Kushinagar in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Kumar, who was so far Congress Legislature Party leader in the state Assembly, comes from OBC Viashya community, representing businessmen and traders and had been actively undertaking party’s activity in the state. While the new State President has been selected from OBC community, Aradhna Mishra, who is MLA from Rampur Khas and senior most in Legislature after Ajay Kumar Lallu has been made new Congress Legislature Party leader of the party in UP State Assembly. Incidentally, Aradhna is the daughter of former Congress Legislature Party and senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari. It may be mentioned that Ajay Kumar Lallu, who was made in-charge of the organisation, had travelled extensively along with Priyanka during her Ganga yatra before the Lok Sabha election in the state and was given charge of forming the organisation till the appointment of a new state unit president. Meanwhile, in a major change from the past, the new committee is small. In the past few years, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee used to have about 400 to 500 office bearers but this time there are less than 50 members in the state executive. An office bearer said that the new committee would be 10 times smaller than the older committee. As part of experiment, while young faces with average age of 40 have been given change in the new Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, an advisory council to the General Secretary has been formed with 18 senior members including former Union Ministers, former MPs and senior leaders like Nirmal Khatri, Pramod Tiwari, RPN Singh, Salman Khursheed, Vivek Bansal, Zafar Ali Naqvi etc. Meanwhile, a working group on strategy and planning has also been formed of eight members, most of whom are also former Members of Parliament including Jitin Prasada, RK Chaudhary, Rajiv Shukla, Pradeep Jain Adityan, Rajarampal etc. Young faces have been given preference especially in selection of Vice-Presidents, which includes Virender Chaudhary, who has been made Vice-president UP East, former MLA Pankaj Mallik, who has been made Vice president UP West, former MLA Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, who has been made Vice-President inchage of Frontals, cells and Departments, which would include Youth Congress, NSUI, OBC, Kisan and Mahila Congress and Deepak kumar, who has also been made Vice-President Frontals, cells and Departments, which would include Sewa Dal, SC-St and minority. In selection of 12 General Secretaries also young faces have been given preference, including former youth Congress President Yogesh Dixit and former NSUI leader Rahul Rai. Citing numbers to spell out the caste equations in the new committee, a senior party leader said, “Not just backward but most backward castes have also been given preference in the committee, which includes nearly 20 per cent Dalits, about 15 per cent Muslims and about 20 per cent upper caste. About 45 per cent backward and most backward castes have been given place in the new committee.”
