Priyanka Gandhi to camp in Lucknow for UP brainstorming session

New Delhi: After overhauling the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be visiting Lucknow where she has called a meeting of all the newly-appointed office bearers.

Priyanka, who is Congress General Secretary in-charge of eastern UP, will reach the state capital of Uttar Pradesh on October 14 and will be camping there for two days. She has called the meeting of the advisory council as well.

She will take feedback from the new office bearers and assign work to new entrants in the organisation, said a source.

On Monday, the Congress appointed Ajay Kumar Lallu as state President. The party also appointed 4 Vice Presidents and 12 General Secretaries in the state.

The party claimed that the new committee has representation from all sections of society. But OBCs have been given preference. The OBCs have been given a major chunk with 45 per cent, Dalits have been given 20 per cent and 15 per cent Muslims have been adjusted in the committee.

However, there is disenchantment within the Congress, with some leaders saying that committed partymen have been ignored in formation of the committee.

A senior leader said on condition of anonymity that with Priyanka in charge, the party is bound to get some traction but converting it into votes is not possible as in the OBC segment, the major players are SP and BJP.

Apart from them, Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal and Suhaildev Samaj Party are also vying for this vote base.

BJP has already made Swantantra Dev Singh, an OBC Kurmi, as state President.

The outsiders to join the Congress have been drafted in organisational roles, which has also irked a section of the leadership.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress recorded its worst performance in Uttar Pradesh, with even Rahul Gandhi, then party President, losing his family pocket borough seat of Amethi. Only Sonia Gandhi could manage to win in Rae Bareli.

In the last Assembly elections in 2017, the party had aligned with Samajwadi Party, despite which it lost badly.