New Delhi: Following the rejig of Congress General Secretaries by Party President Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress's new General Secretary Incharge for Uttar Pradesh, Avinash Pande said that the new leaders faced time constraint in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections 2024, but were up for the challenge. “Yes, there is very little time left for the parliamentary elections but we have to do our job. I have already held several rounds of consultations with the senior state leaders and many more are lined up over the coming days,” AICC in charge Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
“We have been in the organization for decades and know about the states,” he said. Sources said that the high command is focusing big time on UP and has accordingly asked Pande to ensure the success of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which will pass through the state next month. “From Jan 11 to 18 I have organized zone- wise workshop cum training sessions for the local leaders across the state to prepare them for the yatra which is going to be our major program in UP,” said Pande.
Similarly, new AICC in charge of Punjab Devender Yadav has been in the state since Jan 9 to get a first-hand report from the workers and the leaders on how to revive the party. Yadav is also tasked with obtaining feedback from the state leaders over how many of the 13 Lok Sabha seats should the Congress contest given attempts to work out a seat-sharing pact with the ruling AAP.
Yadav also needs to deal with the power tussle between state unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and former state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is opposed to having any alliance with the AAP. New AICC in charge of Maharashtra Ramesh Chennithala is conducting a meeting with Maharashtra leaders on Thursday to assess the party’s claim of 23/48 parliamentary seats in seat sharing with Shiv Sena UBT and NCP.
Chennithala will also discuss ways to regroup the party organization in the state and prepare ground for the culmination of Rahul Gandhi’s east-to-west yatra which is expected to culminate in Mumbai on March 20. New AICC in charge of Chhattisgarh Sachin Pilot is in Raipur on Thursday to discuss preparations for the coming parliamentary elections with the state leaders given the challenge the party faces from the ruling BJP.
The party could win only 1 of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state and reversing that trend is a major task assigned to Pilot, who has been promoted within the organization by both Kharge and Rahul Gandhi. “Our focus is to ensure that public discussion is around issues like jobs, price rise, education and healthcare and not around religion and politics which should never be mixed,” said Pilot.
Sources said that new AICC in charge of states have hit the ground running to prepare for the coming Lok Sabha and meet the expectations of the party high command. After Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had reshuffled his team on December 23, 2023, it was being discussed within the party that the new in-charge had got just two months to show results with Election Commission’s notification for the Lok Sabha polls likely in March.
Party insiders acknowledged the new general secretaries faced the time constraint challenge but would be able to quickly adapt to their new roles given their organizational experience and hard work.
