Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi at the Parliament in New Delhi

Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi at the Parliament in New Delhi

To some of them, the changes speak for ‘the party moving towards a new set of leaders, seen as closer to Rahul Gandhi , to steer the UP unit ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. To note, on Aug 6, All India Congress Committee general secretary appointed Abhishek Dutt, Kunal Choudhary, Jagdish Chander Jangid, Sanjeev Arya, Varun Choudhary and Abdul Hannan as AICC secretaries attached to AICC in charge. During the 2022 state elections, Priyanka Gandhi and her team were at the helm of affairs in UP though her journey began in 2019 with the role of general secretary in charge of eastern UP. UP Congress president Ajay Rai said, “These so-called interpretations appear to be manufactured propaganda planted by BJP to dampen our high spirits ahead of the 2027 elections.

“While the meteoric rise of new in charge Rajendra Pal Gautam – who left AAP to join Congress – is already a talking point among old-timers with references to Gautam’s proximity with Rahul, murmurs that newly appointed deputies given to him are handpicked by the Rae Bareli MP are doing the rounds,” a senior organisational member told TOI. Launched in 2006 from Punjab, this programme aimed to raise young leadership in the grand old party,” said a functionary, adding, “This exercise was based on performance… Those who do well grow up the ranks in the Congress organization. “As personal secretary to Priyanka, Sandeep exuded influence and controlled matters in ways which upset scores of old-timers besides turning certain functionaries virtually redundant,” said a former departmental head in UPCC, adding that the new appointments have edged Team Priyanka out. Brushing this debate aside, UP Congress in charge Rajendra Pal Gautam said, “All this is bogus.

Lucknow: The recent organisational rejig in UP Congress is more than a routine change of roles, believe party insiders. The party also appreciated the outgoing in-charges – Dheeraj Gurjar, Nilanshu Chaturvedi, Pradeep Narwal, Rajesh Tiwari, Satyanarayan Patel and Tauquir Alam. “All the six co-in-charges given a role in UP were groomed by Rahul under the Youth Congress Transformation Programme. With her came a group of young leaders who over time became an important and effective link between Priyanka and UP. The main man in Team Priyanka was Sandeep Singh – former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president. There are no camps. Congress is one party. Those saying this are peddling propaganda. They have failed on all fronts and are now using rumour mills to create confusion in our base. But they will not succeed.”