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Tag: Ajay Kumar Lallu

  • Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu resigns

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu on Tuesday resigned from his post after taking moral responsibility for the party’s humiliating defeat in the state assembly polls.

    The move comes after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the chiefs of its Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur units to resign amid continued rumblings in the party following its abject loss in the assembly elections in these states.

    “I Ajay Kumar Lallu, President, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee want to apprise that the assembly elections have been held in the state in the last few days and all UPCC office bearers worked hard with devotion and took the organisation at village level. We fought against the wrong policies of the government from time to time,” Lallu said in a letter to Sonia Gandhi.

    “But we had to face unexpected defeat in this election. Taking moral responsibility for this defeat, I am resigning from the responsibility of the president post,” he said.

    Lallu, who lost from Tamkuhi Raj seat, said he will work with full devotion for the party.

    “Trusting a common worker like me, you all made me the President of Uttar Pradesh Congress, for this I will be grateful throughout my life, I will always work with full devotion for the party,” the letter stated.

    Earlier in the day, the Congress held a meeting in Delhi to review its poor performance in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, identify shortcomings and chalk out future plans for the politically-crucial state.

    AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra chaired the meeting which was attended by the party’s top state leaders.

    The meeting came two days after Vadra presented her report regarding the party’s drubbing in the polls at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee chaired by Sonia Gandhi. The Congress had won only two out of 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and got a vote share of 2.33 per cent.

  • Congress only alternative in Uttar Pradesh, will get majority: Ajay Kumar Lallu

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Predicting that the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll results will spring a surprise, Congress’ state unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu on Sunday claimed that his party would secure a clear majority while the BJP would “not be able to cross 30 seats” in the elections next year.

    He also hit out at the Samajwadi Party (SP), alleging that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party was only interested in fighting polls and not in struggling on the ground for people’s issues, making the Congress the only alternative in Uttar Pradesh.

    In an interview with PTI, Lallu reiterated that the Congress will not forge an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), but its doors were open for smaller parties in Uttar Pradesh.

    Asked about which parties the Congress was engaged with for possible alliances, he said everything cannot be shared publicly in politics, adding that there could be changes in alliances announced by other parties.

    “Wait for sometime, you will get to see many things. Many parties that have entered into small alliances could change their tie-ups,” he added.

    “No alliance is firmed up, wait for some time, many alliances will change. The SP and the BJP are engaged in ‘noora-kushti (fixed fight). The Congress is struggling for real issues and the ‘noora kushti’ of the BJP and the SP will come to an end,” Lallu said.

    Asked about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s reported statement that even if the Congress, SP and BSP come together, they will not be able to defeat the BJP, the Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit chief claimed that the BJP will not be able to win more than 30 seats.

    “As soon as the model code of conduct is put in place, let the BJP leaders go and seek votes and see what happens. Inflation, unemployment, women’s security, law and order, people will ask questions on these issues,” he said.

    “People are waiting for the polls. I say with a lot of confidence that the BJP will not be able to cross 30 seats and all their claims will remain on paper,” he claimed.

    In the 2017 assembly polls, the Congress won just seven seats while its then alliance partner SP bagged 47 seats in the 403-member assembly in the 2017 assembly polls.

    The BJP had won a thumping mandate with 312 seats and the BSP bagged 19 seats.

    Lallu stressed the Congress will spring a surprise in the Uttar Pradesh poll results as people are enthusiastic about it and after giving a chance to all parties, they would give their blessings to the Congress.

    The Congress will get a “clear majority”, he claimed.

    Lallu asserted that the Congress has emerged the main challenger to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and expressed confidence that it will form the next government.

    “The way the Congress has emerged among poor, youth and farmers, the way it has been struggling on issues like women’s security, law and order, and made its nine promises, change is in the air in Uttar Pradesh and the Congress is being seen as the main challenger. 100 per cent, the Congress will form a government in Uttar Pradesh,” the Congress leader said.

    Asked about the SP calling itself the main challenger and its recent event launching of a perfume, Lallu alleged that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party is a party “for the polls”.

    “Its chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders are out on an election campaign, not to struggle for people’s issues. Farmers wanted to know where you (SP) were when the Lakhimpur incident took place, why you did not come out, why you didn’t struggle. It was Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Congress workers who were struggling on the ground,” he said.

    “Where was everyone sleeping when the three black farm laws were enacted? Where were they sleeping when the proper price was not given for wheat, sugarcane and paddy. All these battles are being fought by the Congress. These people are only interested in fighting elections and branding,” Lallu said.

    People understand that the SP does not have the capacity or the strength to fight and the Congress is the only alternative, he said.

    On the SP’s perfume launch event, he said with money anything can be done but whoever is strong on the ground will matter and the Congress is being backed by the people.

    On the BSP, Lallu said its votes are constantly moving towards the Congress and are strengthening the party.

    Asked if not having the chief ministerial face will hamper the Congress’ chances, he said the party’s national leadership decided on the chief ministerial face issue.

    He hailed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s leadership as a big boost for the party in Uttar Pradesh and used the slogan “Badlav ki aandhi hai, jiska naam Priyanka Gandhi hai (There is a storm of change, whose name is Priyanka Gandhi)”.

  • Priyanka Gandhi a ‘storm’ that will help party sweep 2022 polls: UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The Congress would go to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections without a CM face but will fight under the watch of general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whom the state party chief Ajay Kumar Lallu described as a “storm” that will help sweep the polls.

    Lallu said the way Priyanka Gandhi is raising various issues in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government is feeling threatened by her.

    However, Lallu refused to predict the number of seats the party is targeting to win, but claimed that they would come to power with full majority.

    Congress had won only seven seats in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly in the 2017 polls.

    ALSO READ | UP polls: Congress prepares separate manifesto for women, promises free LPG cylinders, bus rides

    “There is a current (of the party) on the ground. The way in which organisational work has been done in the party, and the way in which a team built, the result is that today we are capable of doing anything,”  Lallu, president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) said.

    “We are demonstrating this organisational strength again and again. The notion that we are nothing in UP has changed. There is a storm in UP and its name is Priyanka Gandhi,” Lallu said.

    “It will help Congress sweep the upcoming polls,” he added.

    Asked why the party has not declared its chief minister candidate, he said, “The CM face is decided by the party’s national leadership.

    But the in-charge of UP is Priyanka ji and the elections will be contested under her watch”.

    “We are going to form the government with full majority,” he said.

    The AICC general secretary tasked with regaining the party’s lost ground in the political heartland, however, was non-committal about contesting the upcoming state polls herself.

    “It has not been decided as yet,” she said earlier this month in response to a question on the possibility of her contesting the polls.

    ​ALSO READ | Akhilesh decides against contesting UP polls, says alliance with RLD finalised

    Reacting to Priyanka Gandhi being dubbed as a “political tourist” by the BJP, Lallu said, “Be it Priyanka ji or our party workers, everybody is targeted.

    In the last three months, Congress workers have faced lathis and gone to jail.

    The government has adopted a path of oppression against us.

    “But I think that the way in which Priyanka ji has raised the issues of women safety, farmers and unemployment, it has given new energy to the Congress.

    The government is feeling completely afraid, and hence resorting to such acts,” he claimed.

    Attacking the Samajwadi Party for alleging that the BJP was helping Priyanka Gandhi to harm the Akhilesh Yadav-led party, the UP Congress chief said, “The SP is engaged in spreading this propaganda. It has lost the confidence of the public.”

    Referring to the six BSP legislators and a BJP MLA joining the SP, Lallu said no matter how many MLAs the party manages to get in its camp, it is the Congress which will form the next government in the state.

    “It is only the Congress which can give a fight to the BJP because it has an ideology and is a synonym for struggle has people’s trust,” Lallu said.

    The SP cannot challenge the BJP because in the last four-and-a-half years, the people of the state have seen what the SP has done, Lallu said.

    The UP Congress president also said that a person who wishes to “fight” this (BJP) government will stay in the party.

    On being asked as to who is the main challenger to the Congress, Lallu said, “The SP and BSP come to contest polls, while the Congress raises the issues of public interest and struggles for it.”

    “We are confident that the people are going to shower their blessings on the Congress,” he added.

    On the question of electoral alliance, Lallu said, “We will have alliance with villages, poor people, farmers and the common man.”

    On Congress leaders including Priyanka Gandhi going to temples, which the BJP has claimed as its “ideological victory”, Lallu said, “We believe in all religions and have faith in all religions. We do not make an event out of everything like the BJP does.”

    Lallu welcomed political parties like the AAP and AIMIM entering the poll fray in Uttar Pradesh.

  • Will ally only with small parties for Uttar Pradesh polls: Congress rules out tie-ups with SP, BSP

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Congress has joined the group of political players who want to seek an alliance only with smaller parties as part of their strategy ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

    Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu expressed the desire on Sunday to tie up with only smaller regional parties for the upcoming assembly elections.

    “The issue of joining hands with bigger players in Uttar Pradesh (UP) ahead of assembly polls is out of question for us,” Ajay Kumar Lallu while talking to media persons.

    However, the UP Congress chief expressed confidence that his party was set to make an impressive comeback after three decades of hiatus in UP politics.

    He substantiated his claim by saying that all the respective governments including that of SP, BSP and BJP had failed to live up to people’s expectations.

    Congress had its last government in undivided UP in 1989 with late ND Tiwari as their Chief Minister.

    However, the UPCC chief chose not to divulge the party strategy to make a comeback.

    Calling the Congress the “main challenger” to the BJP when Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls early next year, Lallu said his party was confident of forming the government in the state after contesting the elections under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

    “We are moving forward as a strong opposition force and under the leadership of Priyanka ji, we will win the polls, and form the government in 2022,” said Lallu.

    Even the BSP and the SP have so far ruled out any alliance with Congress. While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has already expressed his party’s choice of stitching an alliance with smaller parties, BSP supremo Mayawati has made it clear that her party would contest on its own in 2022.

    Earlier in the day, Lallu extended his support for the farmers protesting against the Centre’s contentious agricultural laws as they gathered at Muzaffarnagar in the state for the Kisan Mahapanchayat called by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha.

    In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress managed to bag only seven seats while its ally SP secured 47 seats; the BSP won 19 seats.

    The BJP, meanwhile, won the elections with a thumping majority by clinching 312 of 403 seats legislative assembly to form the government.

  • Two Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh resign from party, say loyal members being neglected

    By PTI

    BALLIA: Two senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) members from Uttar Pradesh have resigned from the party’s primary membership, alleging that old and loyal Congress leaders are being neglected.

    Shailendra Singh and Rajesh Singh sent their resignation letters to the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit president Ajay Kumar Lallu on Sunday.

    The two leaders said they had informed Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi about their decision.

    Targeting the UPCC president, Shailendra Singh told journalists on Monday that loyal and old time Congresspersons have been neglected since Lallu took over and this is why dedicated leaders are quitting the party.

    He said he had informed AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi about the situation in the party many times, but she did not take any step.

    In such a situation, he was left with no option but to resign from the Congress, he added.

    Shailendra Singh said in his resignation letter that he has been active in public service and Congress organization for the last 15 years.

    He is presently joint in-charge of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee and a nominated member of the AICC.

    Rajesh Singh said he had been an active member of the Congress since his student days and had held various positions in the NSUI, Youth Congress and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee for the last 25 years.

    He said in his letter that he was also an elected a member of the AICC but was resigning because of the present environment of the Congress and the neglect of old Congress members.

    Terming the allegations of the two leaders baseless, Congress state secretary and Allahabad in-charge Raghavendra Pratap Singh said work was being done to strengthen the Congress, right down to the ‘nyay panchayat’ and booth level, under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi and Lallu.

    District president of the party, Om Prakash Pandey, said both were having some dispute with the state leadership. 

  • UP Congress chief, party leaders detained ahead of silent march against snooping on Rahul Gandhi 

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and other party leaders were detained while trying to take out a silent march against the alleged snooping on party leader Rahul Gandhi.

    Lallu had given a call for taking out a silent march from Swasthya Bhawan to Raj Bhavan here and submitting a memorandum against the alleged spying on Gandhi.

    UPCC chief Lallu and other senior party leaders were placed under house arrest on Wednesday night with a heavy deployment of force, party spokesman Ashok Singh said.

    On Thursday morning, when Lallu moved out of his house and insisted on leaving for Swasthya Bhawan, police misbehaved and stopped him saying that he does not have permission to hold a march, Singh said.

    As Congressmen raised slogans and insisted on moving ahead, UPCC president and other party leaders were arrested, he added.

    Singh also said Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Misra Mona, senior leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Dipak Misra among others have also been placed under house arrest since Wednesday night.

    Lallu said this government does not honour the right to privacy, and attacks on the independence of individuals cannot be justified.

    The Congress party will never deviate from fighting against this attack on democracy, the spokesman said quoting the UPCC chief.

    We had a plan to reach the Swasthya Bhawan to start the march in five groups.

    When stopped from doing so, the partymen staged protests at different places in the city and were arrested, Singh said.

    All the arrested Congressmen have been taken to Eco Garden, he added.

  • FIR against UP Congress chief Lallu, others in connection with Lucknow silent protest 

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: A case has been registered against three persons, including UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, who sat on a silent protest in front of a Mahatma Gandhi statue here along with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, police said on Saturday.

    The case has been registered for damaging public property, sitting on protest without permission and without giving prior information, Lucknow Police Commissioner D K Thakur said.

    Gandhi, on a two-day visit to Lucknow, had protested along with other party members in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at GPO Park on Friday.

    Police said the Congress workers damaged an iron net structure located in the GPO Park, and violated the Epidemic Act, during the protest.

    “The FIR has been registered against UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, Congress leaders Ved Prakash Tripathi and Diljit Singh, and 500-600 unidentified party workers. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is not named in the FIR,” Thakur told PTI.

    UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh said Gandhi sat on the silent protest to highlight the atrocities on women, anarchy of the administration and police.

    “Women are not safe in the state. Priyankaji sat on a ‘maun vrat’ (silent protest) at the feet of Mahatma Gandhi for ending this jungle raj and to uproot this dictatorial government,” Lallu said on Saturday.

  • Congress leader Urusa Rana accuses party’s UP unit chief of misbehaving with her

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Congress leader Urusa Rana, the daughter of poet Munnawar Rana, alleged on Friday that the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief, Ajay Kumar Lallu, misbehaved with her when she went to greet Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during her dharna at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Hazratganj here.

    “Before the dharna, when I went to greet Priyanka Gandhi, Lallu misbehaved with me and asked me to go away,” Rana, who is the vice-president of the central zone of the Congress’s women wing, said.

    She said when the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was going on, Lallu used to seek her help, adding that she was “hurt” by the treatment meted out to her on Friday.

    When asked, Lallu denied that any such thing happened.

    “Urusa is a party office-bearer and there is no question of misbehaving with her. I myself introduced her to Priyanka Gandhi,” he said.

    The place from where Urusa said she was removed was earmarked only for Priyanka Gandhi, Lallu added.

    Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi met representatives of farmer organisations at the party office here and later, attended a meeting with the executive members, office-bearers, district and city presidents of the Congress.

    On the second day of her visit to Uttar Pradesh, the Congress general secretary will be meeting the party workers from Amethi and Raebareli.

    She will also meet former MPs, MLAs, and Congress office-bearers of the districts and frontal organisations, and return to Delhi in the evening.

  • Amid raging pandemic, Uttar Pradesh Congress calls for white paper on state’s COVID Care Fund

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Congress on Sunday demanded the Uttar Pradesh government release a white paper on the state’s COVID Care Fund amid a massive surge in coronavirus cases.

    In a statement issued here, UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said the COVID Care Fund was created in April 2020 through which people from different sections of society deposited money.

    The MLA funds were suspended for a year, and 30 percent salary of the ministers and legislators cut and deposited in the COVID Care Fund.

    It was said that the money would be used to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Lallu said no one knows where this fund is in the second wave of COVID-19.

    “Where is the fund being spent now? The people in the state are facing a shortage of oxygen, medicines, and basic facilities. In this scenario, where is the COVID fund being spent, nothing is known,” Lallu said adding that the government should release a white paper on this issue.

    The UP Congress chief also claimed that the money meant for being used to provide medical treatment to the people was diverted.

    “As a result in the second wave of COVID-19, the government has left the people to die. Today because of the laxity and insensitivity of the Yogi Adityanath government, every citizen is fighting the COVID pandemic at their own level and in their own capacity,” Lallu said.

    He also said the UP Chief Minister in a written reply to the UP Legislative Assembly had said that till July 2020, Rs 412 crore was deposited from various sources, of which Rs 252 crore was used to buy medical equipment and to help the migrant laborers.

    “Where the rest of the Rs 160 crore has gone is not known. Any information about money being deposited in the COVID Care Fund has not been made public. Why is it so?” Lallu questioned in the statement.