Congress may project a 'Brahmin' CM face in UP

To outsmart the opposition parties amid the race to install the statue of 'Bhagwan Parashuram', the most important 'Brahmin' icon, Congress is mulling to project a 'Brahmin' as its chief ministerial face in the next Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

According to a senior UP Congress leader here, a 'serious' debate was on within the grand old party on the issue. ''There is a very strong possibility that a Brahmin will be projected as the CM face,'' the leader told DH on Wednesday.

The Congress has already launched a 'Brahmin Chetna Yatra' in the state, which was being led by one of its senior 'Brahmin' leaders and former Union minister Jitin Prasada.

Prasada, who has accused the ruling BJP of 'persecuting' the community in the state, also met the 'Brahmin' families, whose members had been murdered in the past few months.

Congress leaders said around a dozen members of the community were ''murdered'' in the past few months and in almost all the cases the culprits were yet to be apprehended.

The leaders felt that there was ''huge resentment'' in the community over being allegedly 'neglected' by the BJP regime. ''There is a need to tap this anger,'' the leader said.

''Ours is the only party, which has given six Brahmin chief ministers to UP....we have always taken care of its interests...the other parties have only cheated the community,'' he added.

In 2017 Assembly polls also the Congress had declared former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit as its CM face for UP. The grand old party had roped in poll strategist Prashant Kishore and organised a series of meetings in different parts of the state.

Things, however, changed completely after Congress entered into an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP). The alliance failed to click and the Congress could secure only seven seats.

''The Brahmins did not support us in 2017 owing to our alliance with the SP...we paid a heavy price,'' the leader remarked.

The Congress has already declared that it will not ally with any party in the next UP assembly polls, which are due in 2022.

'Brahmins' who formed around 10% of the electorate in the state, were a deciding factor on around a dozen Lok Sabha and over 50 Assembly seats.