Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) has begun reaching out to ‘disgruntled’ and ‘expelled’ old guards of the party in order to give it a united face ahead of the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Besides having close interaction with the veterans, who were finding themselves neglected in the past, special efforts are being made to bring those to the party fold who were feeling ‘unhappy’ or had been ‘expelled’ in the recent past.
“The Congress has begun making efforts to bring the party veterans back into its fold. They never went away from us. They are our leaders and will always remain with the party,” said a senior Congress leader, adding, “UPCC held a meeting of party’s former legislators and MPs last month. The party now proposes to hold a get together of former district and city party unit chiefs soon.”
The Congress party’s move to expel 10 senior leaders, who held separate celebrations to mark birth anniversary of former prime minister late Jawahar Lal Nehru on November 14 in 2019, led to an apparent divide between UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu’s new team and the old guards. The expelled veterans though held separate programmes to mark the party’s foundation day on December 28, 2019, the divide continued to grow. While the party later revoked the expulsion of a senior leader, others are still waiting for such a gesture.
Those aware of the development said efforts had been stepped up to bring all the partymen together following appointment of former MLA Satish Ajmani as the UPCC treasurer last month. It is learnt that the party high command is upset with the growing divide between the new team and the old guards and wants a united front ahead of the assembly elections. Ajmani though refused to comment those close to him said he had been contacting the old guards on day-to-day basis.
{{/usCountry}}Those aware of the development said efforts had been stepped up to bring all the partymen together following appointment of former MLA Satish Ajmani as the UPCC treasurer last month. It is learnt that the party high command is upset with the growing divide between the new team and the old guards and wants a united front ahead of the assembly elections. Ajmani though refused to comment those close to him said he had been contacting the old guards on day-to-day basis.
{{/usCountry}}UPCC president Ajy Kumar Lallu has also gone on record that the state Congress was working to bring all the partymen together, especially those who left the party for some reason. It is learnt that the high command was in favour of finding a middle path. “Those expelled on the charges of indiscipline are our senior leaders. A move to withdraw the expulsion may be made anytime if those expelled express regret for their conduct. We are moving close to finding a middle path,” said another leader.
“We have heard that some senior leaders have taken up our case with the high command that is not happy with reports of a divide between the old and the new. We hope a decision in this regard is taken soon,” said one such party veteran.
“The Congress has been facing a leadership crisis at the state level too. If the Congress is bringing them back, the party should also think about changing the situation that compelled the veterans to leave the party. Congress president Sonia Gandhi may also consider taking a call on changing the party’s leadership at different levels,” said SK Dwivedi, former head of department political science, Lucknow University.