UP Congress chief: ‘There is jungle raj in UP…To remove it, we decided to let SP contest bypolls…We will continue to be ‘big brother’ in the alliance’

We are focusing on coordination, workers and organisation. We are bringing along both old and new, keeping the 2027 Assembly elections in mind, and motivating everyone.

What are your biggest organisational challenges at present?

Our biggest challenge is to motivate workers and show them the right way. The government is working with a vendetta against Congress office-bearers in UP. In the past six months alone, our district presidents and cadre leaders have been taken into custody and framed in false criminal cases. Recently, I went to Moradabad, where our Sambhal district president Vijay Sharma is in jail. We will soon launch a protest. Before that, our Azamgarh district president (Praveen Singh) was harassed in a similar manner. Our district presidents and cadre leaders in districts like Ayodhya, Bijnor, Sambhal and Azamgarh have been booked in false cases to demoralise them. But we are standing with them at this hour.

How else are you keeping the cadre motivated and what will they be tasked with next?

We are also preparing a team of leaders and workers to go to Maharashtra from UP to campaign in the Assembly elections. The people of UP have strong links with Maharashtra, especially in East UP. Right from Rae Bareli and Amethi to Jaunpur, Gorakhpur, Ghazipur, Domariyaganj and Varanasi, district units have been asked to identify partymen who have families (in Maharashtra) and are of influence. These teams will go in groups to Maharashtra to work at the grassroots level.

Why did the Congress back out of the bypolls despite large-scale preparations?

The situation in UP forced us to take this decision. There is jungle raj in UP – so much crime, custodial deaths. To remove this jungle raj, we decided to let the SP contest these bypolls and instead provide them support. Moreover, it is wrong to say that we have backed out from the bypolls. INDIA bloc candidates are contesting and, as alliance partners, all of us will work together to ensure their victory. We have formed coordination committees under senior leader (former MP) P L Punia ji. Assembly segment coordination committees have already started meeting. Congress Legislative Party leader Aradhna Mishra held the first meeting in Ghaziabad on Monday. So we are very much in the election to support the INDIA bloc candidates for a bigger cause.

There is resentment among Congress workers over the decision not to contest. Recently, your Prayagraj district party president filed his nomination papers, leading to his expulsion.

We never promised anything to the workers or any individual. Since the very beginning of our preparations in the constituencies due for bypolls, we have been telling workers and leaders to prepare for the alliance to contest. Except for one instance, there has not been any resentment. We are telling our workers not to see the candidates as SP candidates but as INDIA bloc candidates.

You talked about not contesting the bypolls for the sake of a ‘bigger cause’.

We are telling workers it is important to fight the jungle raj as a united face. This message from bypolls will go a long way, till 2027. The public wants us to contest polls unitedly and that is what is important. We thought about it and talked with our cadre and decided that all the seats should be left for the SP to contest, with the support of the Congress. We are convincing our cadre that the 2027 (Assembly polls) are ahead and we have to be ready to fight the bigger fight against divisive forces.

What is the future of the alliance in UP and what will be the Congress’s role?

The Congress has been in the role of a ‘big brother’ in the alliance and so it will be. We have taken alliance partners together and will take them along in the future as well. As I said, the public wants us to contest as a united face. We have contested in the past and will contest under one umbrella in the future as well.

How do you view the ruling BJP’s aggressive campaign for the bypolls?

The BJP is aggressively working for the bypolls because they have a fear after the Lok Sabha elections that they might face a drubbing again. Moreover, there is a fear that if they do not win the bypolls, then (UP CM) Yogi (Adityanath) ji would be removed, for which the Delhi lobby within the BJP is already working. Even in the government, it is the Delhi or Gujarat lobby which is dominant, while Yogi ji does not have much say. Recently, I was going to Delhi from Varanasi and heard at the airport that even Yogi ji was not allowed to take the route meant for the Prime Minister. After all, he is the Chief Minister. But that is their issue. They have to work so aggressively as they are in fear. We are rather working on strengthening our cadre by holding training camps. We can feel that a change is coming, so we are preparing for it. We recently held such camps in Chandauli and soon another camp would be organised in Barabanki.

Why did the Congress raise the issue of the renaming of the Sampurnanand Stadium, named after the former CM?

In Varanasi, there is a saying that in ‘kana-kana (every particle)’ of Kashi, there is ‘Mahadev (Lord Shiva)’. Similarly, (former UP CM) Sampurnanand ji is within ‘jan-jan (every person)’ in Kashi. The Sampurnanand Stadium, whose upgradation was recently inaugurated by the PM, was renamed Varanasi Stadium. We simply raised the voice of the people of Varanasi, and the government had to go on the backfoot and replace the signboard.

Many within the Congress feel that after showing such keen interest in UP in the past, both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi have now left it completely.

It would be wrong to say that. Rahul ji is an MP from UP and they have a close relationship with UP, which is strengthening with time. Consider this, Rahul ji won the recent Lok Sabha polls (in Rae Bareli) by a margin of over 4 lakh votes, while the PM, who is also a UP MP, won it by mere 1.5 lakh votes. This is proof that their (the Gandhis’) connect with UP has only strengthened.