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The party set the tone for the Assembly polls in the state with Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Prayagraj on Saturday.
With the crucial Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, one of the country’s politically sensitive states, inching closer, the Congress has carried out a massive reshuffling in its organisation, replacing all its secretaries with new appointments bearing the stamp of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The party also set the tone for the Assembly polls in the state with Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Prayagraj on August 8, on Saturday while party MPs have urged the leadership to finalise the seat-sharing deal with the Samajwadi Party. Party insiders said that the reshuffling in the state organisation reflects the party’s new formula of appointing new leaders as secretaries in the state.
The old team of secretaries was said to be close to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, as the party decided to replace all of them, including Pradeep Narwal, Dheeraj Gurjar, Nilansh Chaturvedi, Rajesh Tiwari, Tauqir Alam and Satyanarayan Patel. The party on Thursday night appointed Abhishek Dutt, Kunal Chaudhary, Jagdish Chandra Jangid, Sanjeev Arya, Varun Chaudhary and Abdul Hannan. A party insider said the previous team was considered close to Priyanka Gandhi, and that they were appointed during her tenure as General Secretary in-charge of the state. However, the fresh appointments bear the stamp of Rahul Gandhi’s new team, with many of them having worked closely with him in the past in some other states.
The insider also pointed out that just a few months ago, the party had replaced in-charge Avinash Pande with Rajendra Pal Gautam, and the same formula has been adopted this time for the appointments of secretaries. Another party insider said that Rahul Gandhi, who is all set to address the third instalment of his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Prayagraj, chose the city because it holds a historical as well as emotional connection with the Gandhi family. Anand Bhawan, the home of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was donated to the Indian government in 1970 by Indira Gandhi. Anand Bhawan had functioned as the Congress office during the freedom struggle and, before that, was the residence of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nehru’s father, Motilal Nehru, had bought the mansion in 1930 as the residence of his son Jawaharlal Nehru and it was later renamed Swaraj Bhawan when it functioned as the regional party office of the Congress. The party insider also said that Prayagraj is a major hub of students from across the country who come there to prepare for competitive examinations, thus giving the Gandhi scion a huge audience for his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme.
The party insider further stated that the appointment of Gautam as in-charge of the state was part of a broader strategy to woo Dalit voters in the state, who are considered a deciding factor in Uttar Pradesh. The insider said that Gautam has been tasked by party leaders with bringing Dalit voters towards the party as BSP supremo Mayawati has maintained distance from active politics and the party is eyeing her loyal vote share. Recently, party MPs from the state also urged the party high command to finalise the alliance with Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh for better coordination and to have ample time to finalise candidates for the Assembly polls. The party MPs, the source said, apprised the leadership of the urgency, as it would give them time to prepare for the polls in the allotted seats. The source said that during their meeting, the MPs stressed that a delay in seatsharing would only lead to confusion and bitterness in the alliance due to statements from both sides.