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With the BJP declaring Uttar Pradesh as the key to the party’s fortunes in the run up to 2014 and appointing Amit Shah, Narendra Modi’s trusted aide, as state incharge, the Congress too has got in to the act of strengthening its organizational set up in UP. Newly appointed Congress incharge of Uttar Pradesh, Madhusudan Mistry, fresh from the Congress victory in Karnataka, (he was state incharge of Karnataka) will be visiting Lucknow tomorrow to take stock of the party organization there. Last week, Mistry now sooner had he taken charge, Mistry met up with the heads of four out of the eight zones in the capital. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had in May this year, divided the state into eight zones under the charge of local leaders.
The zonal heads from zones 1, 2, 3 and 8 which includes western UP areas of Baghpat, Meerut, Mathura, Firozabad, central UP areas of Lucknow, Kanpur, Kannauj and Jhansi, Jalaun in Bundelkhand met the AICC General Secretary on May 20.
Mistry, who is known to be a trusted confidant of Rahul Gandhi, had according to Congress sources, undertaken a constituency wise assessment right down to the booth level, which contributed to the party’s victory in Karnataka. With UP’s diversity and electoral prospects differing from region to region, the Congress would need to do similar booth wise analysis in the state.
Gandhi had initially divided the state into ten zones with prominent Congress MPs and ministers from UP ( Salman Khurshid, PL Punia, RPN Singh etc) as Presidents of each zone but eight months down the line, he realized the inefficacy of the decision and scrapped it. Thereafter the state was divided into eight zones under local UP leaders. The only central leader in this rejigged set up is former state incharge Digvijay Singh.
Zonal heads have been directed to appoint district heads and get booth level workers in place at the earliest. With the Congress performing dismally in the last Assembly polls (28 seats) despite Rahul Gandhi taking centre stage himself, the Congress is banking on its 2009 Lok Sabha results where the party managed to pull off 22 seats just short of what the BSP and the SP did.
Senior UP Congress leader and Union minister Beni Prasad Verma’s remarks against other party leaders being “the B Team of the Samajwadi Party” had led to Mistry speaking to twice over the phone telling him in clear terms that it is better if such things were not discussed in public.
Mistry’s day long meeting tomorrow, will involve a series of interactions with Pradesh Congress leaders and workers. BJP’s Amit Shah, Narendra Modi’s trusted aide, who was appointed recently as state incharge, has made his first visit to the state last fortnight.
The Congress will also have to contend with the fact that the ruling Samajwadi Party and the BSP in the state, have already announced their candidates for the 2014 polls.
