With UP AICC list, Congress tries to strike a balance — between castes, new and old faces

A few faces from the poll campaign, such as Alpana Nishad who had contested in 2022 from Prayagraj following the Congress’s “Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon” campaign attributed to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have found a place in the AICC though.

Party leaders said that unlike in the past, while suggestions of new state president Brijlal Khabri were taken into account, due consideration was also given to the leaders active in the interim. Sources in the party said considering the exit of some prominent leaders in the past few years, a balance was created by not just taking in old faces but also giving due consideration to new ones.

As a result, along with names of sitting and former MPs, former MLAs and MLCs, the party also decided to offer membership to young names like Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh was among the leaders who fronted the long-running protest at Allahabad University against fee hike and also led a hunger strike there. He becomes a new AICC member while serving as the state president of the Congress’s students’ wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).

Another young face from Prayagraj included in the AICC for the first time is Akshay Kranti Veer who travelled with Rahul Gandhi on the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Tribal leader Ramraj Gond from Sonbhadra, who led an agitation in Umbha village of Sonbhadra and also contested the last Assembly election from Obra, has also been rewarded with an AICC membership.

From Lucknow, the party has chosen new faces such as former corporator Mukesh Chauhan, sitting corporator Mamta Chaudhary, party spokesperson Rafat Fatima, former head of social media Shiv Pandey and Pankaj Tiwari, along with Nakul Dubey, who recently joined the Congress from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Both Brijlal Khabri and his predecessor Ajay Kumar Lallu – have been included in the list.

The UP AICC list also includes familiar faces as well as former and sitting MPs, such as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, P L Punia, Raj Babbar, Pradeep Jain Aditya, Zafar Ali Naqvi, Nirmal Khatri, Pramod Tiwari, Imran Pratapgarhi and Rajesh Mishra. It also includes sitting MLAs such as Aradhana Mishra, who is also Congress Legislature Party leader, and Virendra Chaudhary, along with former MLAs such as Akhilesh Pratap Singh, Ajay Rai — who had contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, as well as Anugrah Narayan Singh from Prayagraj, former MLCs like Vivek Bansal and Harish Bajpai.

The party has also given due importance to caste combinations in all regions of the state. Along with minorities, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Brahmins, leaders representing Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes have been given due place. Even among OBCs, there is a balance, with not just Yadavs but also Kushwahas, Vermas, and Pals finding space.

Among the women members, there are fresh faces such as Rafat Fatima along with veterans such as Mohsina Kidwai, Begum Noor Bano, and Louise Khurshid, and prominent faces such as Pankhuri Pathak and Karishma Thakur along with Muzaffarnagar district president Geeta Kakran.

“There won’t be much resentment as it’s a very balanced list. Due consideration has been given to old and new faces, while proper representation has been given to different castes and regions. Moreover, due consideration has also been given to those who are active workers and are engaged in actively raising issues of the public,” said Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh, the AICC member from Etawah, a role he has fulfilled for 20 years.