The Congress party flag.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Meetings with castes and communities, contesting the upcoming MLC elections in teachers’ and graduate constituencies, fielding candidates in large numbers in the local body elections, and appointing 19.78 lakh office bearers at the grassroots level by December-end are part of an action plan drawn up by the Congress to revive the party in Uttar Pradesh.
The main aim of these moves is to make the Congress battle-ready for the 2027 Assembly elections while identifying potential leaders at the grassroots to face the challenges posed by the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in a state where the party has been relegated to an almost insignificant player.
One of the immediate tasks identified is to organise theme-based meetings with leaders, opinion makers and influencers in castes and communities, including minorities as well as professional groups such as lawyers. “We are holding such meetings in October–November,” Congress General Secretary and UP in-charge Avinash Pande told DH.
Such meetings will target Jats, Gurjars, Passis, Nishads, Lodhis and upper castes among others, where party leaders will interact with community leaders and influencers.
The first is expected to be a ‘Kisan Sammelan’ on October 14 in Muzaffarnagar in western UP, where Jats, predominantly farmers, are an influential section.
Following state-level meetings, the party is also planning similar deliberations at the district level.
Congress lost its influence in the state following the rise of ‘mandal’ and ‘kamandal’ politics in the 1990s, as several caste groups shifted to the Samajwadi Party, BSP and BJP.
The party now believes it could benefit from the acceptability of Rahul Gandhi, who has been espousing a social justice and anti-communal plank.
At the organisational level, the party is in overdrive to induct as many leaders as possible. Pande said that by December, they plan to appoint 19.78 lakh office bearers at the state, district, block, mandal and booth levels in a five-tier system.
While the appointment process in around 8,000 mandals is underway, he added, the appointment of office bearers and Booth
Level Agents in around 1.62 lakh booths is also in the offing.
As part of the organisation-building exercise, the party has also decided to contest the MLC elections to 11 graduate and teachers’ seats, as well as the local body elections, which it views as a “semifinal” for the 2027 polls. The plan is to contest all seats in 57,961 panchayats, 826 blocks and around 3,500 seats in 75 district panchayats.
“We have started the preparations. Training programmes are on,” Pande said.
Though local body polls are not fought on political lines, parties view them as an opportunity to test their strength at the grassroots by fielding local leaders. The Congress has so far not given much importance to MLC or local body elections, leaving the space open for rivals, including allies.
“This was a missing link. There were not many grassroots leaders in the party. We gain local leaders through local body polls,” a senior leader said.
In addition, the state Congress unit has started mapping localities to organise programmes.
Data of places with weekly markets and ‘melas’ has been prepared at the local level so that these areas can be targeted for outreach. The party is also reaching out to families of freedom fighters, the leader added.