Ajay Kumar Lallu replaces Babbar as UPCC chief

LUCKNOW: The Congress on Monday announced a new team in UP, appointing Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu as the president of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) to assist Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to accomplish Mission UP 2022.

Party MLA Aradhna Mishra Mona has been appointed new CLP leader in place of Lallu.

Raj Babbar had tendered his resignation following party’s debacle in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

After reviewing party’s performance in 2017 assembly elections, Priyanka Gandhi had begun an exercise to revamp the party organisation and give a new team to the party for 2022 assembly elections.

UPCC that used to have 500 or more members earlier will now have only 45 members, including four vice presidents - Virendra Chaudhary (east), Pankaj Malik (West), Lalitesh Tripathi (frontal organisations, cells and departments) and Deepak Kumar (Seva Dal, SC/ST and minority departments). The new UPCC will have 12 general secretaries and 24 secretaries. An advisory committee of 12 senior leaders led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been constituted and party leaders like Mohsina Kidwai, Nirmal Khatri, PL Punia, RPN Singh, Ranjit Singh Judeo, Rajesh Mishra, Rashid Alvi, Praveen Aron, Pramod Tiwari, Pradeep Mathur and Zafar Ali Naqvi have been appointed its members. A working group constituted on strategy and planning has senior party leaders Jitin Prasada, RK Chaudhary, Rajiv Shukla, Imran Masood, Pradeep Jain Aditya, Rajaram Pal, Brijlal Khabri and Raj Kishore Singh.

A second term Congress MLA from Tamkuhiraj assembly constituency, Lallu comes from the OBC community. The new UPCC has 20% representation to upper caste with an equal number of Dalits and 15 percent minorities.