Seniors distance themselves from Congress in UP

Senior leaders like Salman Khurshid, Nirmal Khatri, Shri Prakash Jaiswal, R. P. N. Singh, Arun Kumar Singh Munna and Raj Babbar have not visited the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) office in recent weeks and neither has the new UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu made any efforts to gain their confidence.

"Lallu is so caught up with the fact that he is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's blue-eyed-boy that he feels there is no need to ensure the presence of seniors at party events. One by one, party leaders are leaving the Congress and Lallu will soon find himself isolated," said a party veteran.

Senior Congress leaders in UP are unlikely to participate in the ten-day Congress campaign against the economic slowdown.

Former minister and senior Congress leader Ammar Rizvi is the latest in the list of those who have quit the Congress to join the BJP in UP.

The party is facing an acute shortage of leaders in the districts and if a younger leader is given charge, the senior ones immediately withdraw into their shells, a party leader said.

In UP, the party has appointed presidents in 47 districts but cannot find suitable candidates in the remaining districts.

"The office bearers appointed in the new committee are mostly unknown faces. Since I do not know majority of them, how can I work with them," said senior Congress leader Vinod Chaudhary who has resigned as member of the party's disciplinary committee.

Another factor that seems to be a major irritant is Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's focus on OBCs and the importance being given to them.

"The Brahmin Thakur votes in UP are up for grabs but our party is focusing on OBC where SP, BJP and BSP already have a stake. Brahmins and Thakurs want to veer towards the Congress but no one is there to welcome them. In the recent bypolls in Pratapgarh, the Congress candidate Neeraj Tripathi ranked second and Brahmins and Thakurs voted for him. They did not vote for Apna Dal even though the candidate was from the BJP. In Kanpur too, the Congress got the support of Brahmins and other upper castes and stayed at the second position," said a former UPCC president.

UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu , however, denied that there was any resentment in the party.

"I am a soldier of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ji and will accomplish whatever task is assigned to me. We are working at the ground level and the young generation is being given responsibility as per the party's directives," he said.

( With inputs from IANS )