New Delhi: After inaugurating a new national office, the Congress has set its eyes on reviving the grand old party in the biggest challenge state of Uttar Pradesh where booth-level teams are to be formed over the next 100 days.
The booth-level teams are part of the five-layered organisation the Congress is planning in Uttar Pradesh where organisational strength has been a challenge over the past three decades during which the party moved to the margins and lost its traditional vote banks like Dalits, Muslims and OBCs to regional parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) and the upper castes to the national rival BJP.
The recast of the state unit follows the dismissal of all local teams by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on December 5, 2024. "We have completed two rounds of consultations with over 6,000 senior leaders on how to recast the party. We are going to have a five-layered organisation in the state down to the booth level where local committees will be formed over the next 100 days," All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
As it set out on the path to revival the state unit took care to involve the active veterans and former state unit chiefs in the key consultations. "We have been criticised for our weak organisation but it is significant that over 6000 active workers from across the workers took part in the discussions and gave their valuable suggestions. Also, a large number of people have come forward to play new roles in the party,” said Pande.
“We invited four former state unit chiefs like Salman Khurshid, Raj Babbar, Nirmal Khatri and Brijlal Khabri who shared their experiences on party revival," he said.
The revival in Uttar Pradesh is part of the national effort the Congress will undertake in 2025 to plug organisational gaps across the country and give new roles to younger leaders and workers while benefiting from the experience of the veterans.
While Pande conducted workshops across the six zones over the past week on revival issues, his deputies held parleys to identify the potential office bearers district-wise.
“We will use the past as a foundation to build a new party structure for the future. Once the state-wide teams are in place, the first test would be the local body elections next year in which we will back the contestants,” said Pande.
The local body elections in the state are fought on independent lines where different parties back candidates of their choice. The 2027 Assembly elections will be the real test for the Congress and ally Samajwadi Party, which has a strong organisation across the state.
"The consultations were fruitful and around 30 per cent women leaders and workers took part in the process. This is a good indication for the party to expand its presence across the women voters who were influenced by the special campaign led by former in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra earlier. We have started preparing for the 2027 Assembly elections right now and we are aware of the challenges ahead," AICC secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Dhiraj Gurjar told ETV Bharat.
