Cong should contest UP polls alone: senior party leaders

Congress should fight the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled in the first half of 2017 on its own, feels senior party leaders from the state.
This was the consensus at a meeting of senior party leaders from Uttar Pradesh with AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry, who is in-charge of the party affairs in the state.
"Rank and file of the party wants Congress to contest the elections on its own," former Union minister R P N Singh said after the deliberations.
Besides PCC Chief Nirmal Khatri, 20 senior leaders from the state including former Union ministers Salman Khurshid, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Mohsina Kidwai participated in the meeting, which was held in the backdrop of the Bihar Assembly poll results which saw party leaders in an upbeat mood.

They wanted the party to draw up an aggressive agitation programme ahead of the Assembly polls and an ambitious action plan to take Uttar Pradesh on the fast track.
Congress, they said, should pay special emphasis on programme for youth and women, who have been "neglected" in the non-Congress regimes for the past over two decades.

Congress has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh since 1989 in the wake of the Mandir and Mandal issues that saw it getting increasingly marginalised.
Some leaders said that projection of a Chief Ministerial candidate would benefit the party.
Mistry dismissed reports about plans to change the PCC chief.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi will be reaching out to farmers in Uttar Pradesh by undertaking a Kisan Padyatra in Saharanpur district on Monday.
The Congress Vice President will be interacting with farmers in Hardakhedi, Sikrikalan and Patni villages of the district.
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Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the party valued the hard work and contribution of Prashant Kishor and his team.
"Congress Party values the hard work & contribution of PK & team & rejects the propaganda by vested interests.
"Congress is determined to meet all future challenges with the entire pool of talent available," he said in a series of tweets.