Amid tension with SP, Congress begins UP rehaul, its message: ‘2027 polls will be under Congress leadership’

Focusing on rebuilding the UP party organisation based on its objective “Ateet ki neenv pe bhavishya ka nirman (building the future on the foundation of the past)”, the Congress has devised a mechanism to evaluate the eligibility of candidates aspiring to be part of the new teams at various levels.

The Congress leadership has constituted a broadbased panel comprising senior AICC and state leaders, ex-Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) presidents, current and former MLAs and MPs, and even nominees of several recent polls to evaluate the applications of such candidates zone-wise besides interacting with them. The panel members include Pande, Rai, AICC secretaries in-charge of each zone, ex-UPCC chiefs such as Salman Khurshid, Raj Babbar, Nirmal Khatri, Brijlal Khabri and Ajay Kumar Lallu, and veteran leaders like P L Punia and K L Sharma. The UPCC has divided the state into six zones including Awadh, Eastern UP, Western UP, Prayagraj, Braj, and Bundelkhand and Kanpur.

Congress sources said the exercise was firmed up after top party leaders Rahul Gandhi, who is also an MP from Rae Bareli, and Priyanka Gandhi, met UPCC leaders in Delhi recently. Its objective is to build a grassroots leadership in all the regions, which is envisaged to remain active on the ground and would be ready to execute the party roadmap set out by the leadership, sources said, adding that the idea is to promote budding leaders from various communities including Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and minorities too.

The Congress’s move also assumes significance in light of the periodic tension seen in the party’s relations with its INDIA ally Samajwadi Party (SP) despite their impressive showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when they together bagged 43 (SP’s 37 and Congress’s 6) out of the state’s 80 seats as against the NDA’s 36 seats (BJP’s 33).

The Congress recently declared its backing to the SP for the February 5 high-stakes by-election to the Milkipur Assembly constituency in Ayodhya, which is set to witness a direct fight between the SP and the ruling BJP. Amid differences with the SP over seat-sharing in the bypolls for nine Assembly seats last November, the Congress had also stayed away from them, extending its support to the former. The SP however suffered a setback in these bypolls, with the BJP winning seven of them, including two of the former’s sitting seats.

“We have decided to dedicate 2025 to rebuilding of our cadre in UP. The present exercise of reorganisation of the state committee and district committees should be completed within 100 days. While the young generation might not remember the Congress’s glorious past in UP, it is our responsibility to connect the past with a new future and move forward,” Avinash Pande said. Pande has been holding 12-hour-long meetings along with his colleagues at the UPCC headquarters in Lucknow for the past several days, dedicating a day for the districts of each zone. This would culminate on Monday, when he would hold a meeting with the office-bearers of the party’s frontal organisations.

“Under the new evaluation system for the Congress’s reorganisation, all those interested in taking up organisational roles in the new teams have been asked to answer a few questions, which is being reviewed by the panel,” a Congress insider said. They have been asked to fill a form, which apart from seeking details like their organisational background, age, caste and educational qualifications also ask them about their roles in the Congress’s membership campaign or its “tree plantation” and “blood donation” drives, Rahul Gandhi’s Bhara Jodo Yatras besides information about their participation in any party-led agitational programmes. Their filled-up applications were collected by the AICC secretaries during their zonal visits, which are being evaluated by the party’s panel.

When asked whether the Congress would continue with its UP alliance in future, Pande side-stepped the question, telling The Indian Express that the Congress has been making all efforts to emerge as a leading party in UP. “We would move ahead with the slogan ‘hum tayar hain’ (we are ready), with our active teams ready in advance on the ground in all UP Assembly seats,” he said. “2027 ka chunav Congress ke netritva mein hi lada jayega (2027 Assembly polls would be fought under Congress’s leadership,” he claimed, adding that “all those who are on the same page would join hands with our party”.