Ajay Kumar Lallu replaces Raj Babbar as UP Cong chief

The Congress on Monday appointed Ajay Kumar Lallu as its Uttar Pradesh president, replacing Raj Babbar, and revamped the state unit, bringing in four vice presidents, 12 general secretaries and 24 secretaries.

Ajay was the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in Uttar Pradesh and is a two-time MLA from Tamkuhi Raj constituency. He is considered close to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who is the party's General Secretary (Incharge, Uttar Pradesh East).

Aradhana Misra 'Mona' has been appointed as CLP leader in place of Ajay.

In another order, party chief Sonia Gandhi set up an advisory council -- whose 18 members include Ajay Rai, Ajay Kapoor, Mohsina Kidwai, P L Punia and R P N Singh -- to the AICC general secretary.

Ajay Rai is the former MLA from Varanasi and Kidwai is a senior party leader.

An eight-member working group for strategy and planning for UP was also set up. Jitin Prasada, Rajiv Shukla, Rajaram Pal, Imran Masood and Brij Lal Khabri are among its members.

According to a party communication, the four vice presidents are: Virender Chaudhary (UP East), Pankaj Malik (West), Laliteshpati Tripathi and Deepak Kumar for the party's frontal organisations such as NSUI and PYC.

The party communication said that 12 general secretaries include Alok Prasad Rai, Vishwa Vijay Singh, Yusuf Ali Turk and Yogesh Dixit.