News Analysis India

Tag: UP Congress

  • UP Congress awaiting appointment of new state chief, organisational activities at standstill

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: After the resignation of UP Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ajay Kumar Lallu owning responsibility for the party’s dismal show in the recently concluded state Assembly elections, the state unit has not got a new chief even a month after the results. The Congress could win just two seats with a vote share of 2.33 per cent.

    As per senior functionaries of the grand old party, the activities of the organisation had come to a grinding halt after a hectic election campaign. “The party is waiting for the appointment of the new state chief who can breathe fresh life into the organisation. Hopefully the high command will look into it soon,” said a senior party leader.

    However, the names of former UPCC president Nirmal Khatri, former Rajya Sabha MPs and senior leaders Pramod Tiwari and PL Punia are doing the rounds as possible contenders for the UPCC chief’s post.

    ALSO READ: Breakup between Congress, Prashant Kishor leaves unanswered questions as party seeks revival

    In the absence of a regular president of the state unit of the party, senior general secretary Dinesh Singh is taking care of day-to-day work to ensure smooth functioning of the party.

    Apart from the resignation of the then UPCC chief who himself lost his seat, the Congress high command had entrusted party general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh with the responsibility to ascertain the factors behind party’s decimation in the assembly elections. While the high command’s decision is awaited, party insiders claim that the feedback report mentioned that a large section of party cadre blamed lack of infrastructure at grassroots level for the rout.

    The Congress’s number of seats has been dwindling in election after election. In 2012, Congress had won 15 seats. In 2017, the party stitched up an alliance with the Samajwadi Party but failed to cut much ice among the voters and the number of its seats came down to seven under the sweeping saffron surge. In 2022, despite an aggressive campaign by AICC general secretary and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party could win just two seats. After the 2022 poll results, Priyanka has not visited the state.

  • Women at the centre of new Congress strategy

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The grand old party of the country is preparing to adopt a new strategy, keeping women, farmers, Scheduled Castes, minorities and young voters in mind in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh next year. 

    Congress leaders are learnt to have started working on this strategy with a team of experts from socio-economic and political fields. “We are set to adopt a new strategy, setting examples for other parties to follow. The decision to reserve 40% of tickets for woman is not going to be an isolated example. A lot of surprises are in store, for youths, farmers and others, who are longing for a change in UP and other states,” a senior leader  claimed.

    As per official data, UP has around 6.61 crore female voters out of 14.40 crore eligible voters. In recent local body elections, 53.7% of successful candidates were women. Archana Kumari, a Delhi-based research scholar working on electoral consciousness among women aged between 25-45, said, “In states like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, MP and West Bengal,  electoral consciousness both in casting votes and participation in electoral process has increased by 15% to 22% in the last 15 years. Results of elections have started being influenced by the huge turnout of women voters in the country”.

    ALSO READ | Congress decides to field 40 per cent of women candidates in Uttar Pradesh polls

    RK Verma, another political researcher associated with Indian Institute of Public Administration, said the decision reflects that Congress has understood the emerging social and gender chemistry of voters, although a bit late. A reliable party source said Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has played a big part in devising the new strategy. “A war room for fighting the UP elections has been set up in Lucknow where experts from various related political fields would be fine-tuning the new strategies,” he said.

    It is expected that female voters in UP would once again outnumber their male counterparts — from 63.26% in 2017 to 65-67% in 2022. BJP had managed to get a major chunk, as around 46% of women voted for them. Hailing the decision of reserving 40% tickets reserve for women, senior Congress leader KC Venugopal called it historic. Pawan Khera, another leader,  said, “This is what revolutions are made of. This announcement is unprecedented. It  will prove to be a turning point in Indian politics”.

    Echoing similar sentimentsd, Chhattisgarh chief minister and special observer of party for UP elections, Bhupesh Baghel termed the decision a historic one. “Now, the women of UP will not be afraid but will say it firmly,” he said.

  • WATCH | Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel stopped at Lucknow airport, disallowed to visit Congress office

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was prevented from coming out of Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport Tuesday when he arrived to visit the state Congress office and meet party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

    Baghel sat on a dharna at the airport after being disallowed to go to the Uttar Pradesh Congress office amid widespread protest over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

    “I am being stopped from going out of Lucknow airport without any orders,” he wrote in tweet with a photo of him sitting on the floor at the airport.

    pic.twitter.com/xoZpzNswwC
    — Bhupesh Baghel (@bhupeshbaghel) October 5, 2021
    The Chhattisgarh chef minister reasoned with the police on duty as to why he was being stopped but to no avail, a Congress spokesman said.

    “Why am I being stopped? I am not going to Lakhimpur where there are prohibitory orders in place.

    I am only going to PCC (Congress office),” he asked the police personnel.

    Talking to mediapersons at the airport, Baghel said he does not plan to go to Lakhimpur Kheri but to the Congress office where he was scheduled to address a press conference later in the day.

    Baghel also said he has come to meet party national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who is currently in custody at Sitapur.

    The Uttar Pradesh government had Monday asked the Lucknow airport authority not to allow Chhattisgarh chief minister and the Punjab deputy chief minister who had to visit Lakhimpur Kheri in view of the violence that erupted there.

    Eight people were killed Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

    “After the incident in Lakhimpur, the district magistrate has imposed prohibitory orders there to maintain law and order.

    It is requested that you should not allow Chhattisgarh CM and Punjab deputy CM at the CCS Airport in Lucknow,’ Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi had said in a letter dated October 3 to the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

    ALSO WATCH:

    Lakhimpur Kheri Violence: What all happened in 24 hours at the farmers’ protest:

  • Lakhimpur Kheri: Drones monitoring Priyanka Gandhi, not allowed to meet lawyers, say Congress leaders

    By PTI

    SITAPUR/LUCKNOW: Why has the person behind the killing of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri not been arrested while she has been under detention for 28 hours without an FIR, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi asked on Tuesday as her colleagues alleged that she was not being allowed to meet her lawyers.

    Priyanka Gandhi and other Congress leaders have been in detention beyond 24 hours and a drone camera deployed over the 2nd Battalion PAC guesthouse in Sitapur where they have been kept, Congress office-bearers claimed.

    “She is not being allowed to meet her lawyers and the administration is not telling her reasons for her detention,” Congress media and communication vice chairperson Pankaj Srivastava said.

    ALSO READ | ‘Whoever protests in UP, gets beaten, oppressed’: Priyanka hits out at Yogi government

    Besides Priyanka Gandhi, state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu, national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar, Youth Congress national president BV Srinivas, party MLC Deepak Singh are also under detention, he said.

    The Congress general secretary was detained in Sitapur on Monday on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people died and several others were injured on Sunday in the bloodiest clash since the farmers’ protest over the Centre’s agri laws began last year.

    On Tuesday, she shared a video on Twitter purportedly showing a group of protesting farmers being mowed down by an SUV.

    “@narendramodi ji your government has detained me for the past 28 hours without any order or FIR. Why the person who ran over farmers has not been arrested yet?” she said in a tweet in Hindi.

    Her party colleague Gurjar shared another video on the microblogging site showing a drone, which he claimed was flying above the guesthouse where Congress leaders have been detained.

    “The government is so scared of Priyanka Gandhi that even after keeping her under detention, it is using a drone to keep an eye on her,” he tweeted in Hindi.

    ALSO READ | ‘Remember the farmers who got India her freedom’: Priyanka slams PM Modi’s silence over Lakhimpur Kheri deaths 

    As several Congress leaders took to social media, party workers staged demonstrations till late Monday night and slept on the pavement outside the PAC battalion complex.

    The crowd of Congress workers and supporters was thin on Tuesday morning but started to swell after 10 am as more party activists from all over the state thronged Sitapur and occupied all hotels in the vicinity.

    District officials said the law and order situation was in control.

    According to Srivastava, the “illegal detention” of party leaders has led to anger among Congress workers.

    “The prime minister is coming for a celebration in Lucknow while the farmers of Lakhimpur are waiting for justice,” he added.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Lucknow on Tuesday to inaugurate a programme of the ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav’ celebrations.

    Four of the eight dead in Sunday’s violence were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area. The others were identified as BJP workers and their driver allegedly pulled out of the vehicles and then lynched by the protesters.

    The Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged a case against Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish but no arrest has been made so far.

  • Congress names Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel senior observer for UP assembly polls 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday named Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel as a senior observer for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls next year.

    Baghel, who had played a crucial role in the run up to the Assam assembly polls with his team carrying out extensive booth training of party workers, has in the past discussed the preparations for the elections in UP with Congress general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi.

    “The Congress president has appointed Shri Bhupesh Bhagel, chief minister, Chhattisgarh, as AICC senior observer for the ensuing elections in Uttar Pradesh, with immediate effect,” the Congress said in a statement.

  • Priyanka Gandhi set to launch Congress’ UP campaign in Lucknow on October 2

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  The Congress is expected to start its campaign for Uttar Pradesh elections on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 from Lucknow and the plan will be given the final go-ahead by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during her visit to the state capital later this week.

    During her visit on September 10-11, she is scheduled to hold meetings with party functionaries and state election and advisory committees to chalk out strategy for the Assembly elections early next year. The party is planning to hold a big rally in Lucknow on October 2 that will be addressed by Priyanka and other senior party leaders to launch the party’s campaign. This comes at a time when the party is looking at a revival in the key state. The party in 2017 had contested elections in alliance with Samajwadi Party and won only seven seats.     

    Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu has made it clear that the party will not tie-up with bigger parties in the state. Rather, it will  be looking at alliances with smaller parties. The party candidates who won elections and those who stood in second position in 2017 are expected to be fielded again this time.The grand old party has held training workshops for party workers and leaders ahead of the elections.

    Rahul to visit JammuCongress leader Rahul Gandhi will be on a two-day visit to Jammu from Thursday, during which he will pay obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra. Gandhi will leave for Jammu on Thursday and participate in the evening ‘aarti’ at the temple. He will stay at the shrine board’s guesthouse, sources said. The former Congress chief will address a workers’ convention at Jammu on Friday and meet separate delegations of local leaders during a luncheon meeting, they said. He will return to Delhi late in the evening, parrty sources said.

  • 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.

  • 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.