AAP’s snapping up UP Congress rebels, wants to knock party out of 4th place in state

UP Congress’ old guard is miffed with Team Priyanka, and more than 80 local leaders have joined AAP, which is eyeing panchayat, zila & state polls in 2021-22.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh (centre, in dark blue jacket) and Congress leaders who have switched sides pose with the party's symbol, brooms | By special arrangement

Lucknow: For a number of years now, the once-mighty Congress has been considered the No.4 party in Uttar Pradesh, behind the ruling BJP and the regional powerhouses Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. But now, events are shaping up in such a way that the Congress may even have to fend off a challenge for also-ran status from the Aam Aadmi Party.

The Congress has been hit hard by an ‘old guard-versus-Team Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’ internal rivalry — more than 80 local leaders of the former category have joined the AAP so far, including more than two dozen former office-bearers of the Congress’ Lucknow unit.

Vaibhav Maheshwari, spokesperson of AAP’s UP unit, claimed the number was actually over 100.

“In central UP alone, 50-80 local leaders of the Congress have joined the AAP. We need experienced and like-minded local leaders who have a clean image, and we got to know that people in the Congress are not happy with the present situation,” said Maheshwari.

“They want to switch, so we are welcoming them because they have immense experience which will help us in panchayat, local body and assembly elections.”

Better offers

Sources in the AAP’s UP unit said the party is planning to damage the Congress in every district by offering rebels — mostly mid-rung leaders and workers annoyed with the functioning of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s team — higher positions in the organisation. Party sources said Rajya Sabha MP and UP in-charge Sanjay Singh is spending four days a week in the state and meeting Congress rebels.

The AAP is offering those who don’t have any position in the UP Congress’ new core committee, such as former MLC and senior leader from Rahul Gandhi’s former constituency Amethi Nadeem Ashraf Jayasi, the party’s former media in-charge in the state Rajeev Bakshi, and Lucknow-based senior leader Sarabjit Singh Makkar.

Jayasi has been made co-in-charge of AAP’s UP unit, while Makkar has been appointed as vice-president. Senior Kanpur area leader Ashutosh Pandey has been given the title of state secretary, while Bakshi has been put in charge of Lucknow West, where he’s expected to fight the 2022 assembly elections.

Each of these leaders have been tasked with bringing in more of their Congress colleagues, and in the last three months, more than 80 leaders have switched over, primarily from Lucknow, Kanpur, Bijnor and Moradabad districts.

The sources added AAP has also offered important positions to some former Congress MPs and MLAs, but they are yet to take a final decision.

A UP Congress leader told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity, “Rebels who have more influence are joining the SP, while those have lesser influence are finding AAP to be the better option. Now, the Congress has started monitoring AAP’s activities and its active campaigning on social media. Some Youth Congress and Mahila Congress leaders have been asked to keep an eye on them and get more active on social media to compete with AAP.”

‘Congress has no vision left’

The leaders who have joined the AAP have spoken about the “uncertainty” in the Congress’ UP unit. Amit Srivastava ‘Tyagi’, a senior congress leader from Lucknow, said, “In UP, the Congress has forgotten its ideology. It is in the hands of Leftists who don’t know how to tackle party leaders and workers. More than a dozen former post-holders joined the AAP with me because we want to a space to work freely and enthusiastically.”

Bakshi added: “AAP has space to give to the new joinees to work freely, whereas the Congress doesn’t have any vision left in UP.”

Even before the AAP started snapping up its leaders, more than a dozen former MPs and MLAs, including influential ones like Annu Tandon, Salim Sherwani and Bijendra Singh, left the Congress alleging a “communication gap” and blaming “Team Priyanka’s inexperience” in handling party activities.

Speaking to ThePrint, Congress UP chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said, “Those who have left were not active on the ground for several months. We tried to accommodate them in the frontal organisation, but they only wanted a higher post in the main organisation. We tried to resolve the issue, but if someone has decided to quit the party, then how can we stop them?”

Panchayat elections the target

AAP convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had sought to pitch the party as a major contender in UP in 2014, and had even contested against Narendra Modi from Varanasi. But he lost, and the party’s efforts fizzled out, losing all 77 seats it contested. It didn’t contest in the 2017 assembly polls, but that same year, it contested civic polls and won 44 seats to emerge as the fifth largest party.

In the 2019 general elections, the AAP contested seven seats but lost its deposits everywhere. Now, it has decided to contest panchayat polls, which are supposed to be held in March 2021.

The AAP is planning to contest all seats in the upcoming zila panchayat elections, its UP in-charge Sanjay Singh said recently.

“For this, those wishing to contest elections on an AAP ticket will have to fill up a form and submit to the district level executive committees. These will then be vetted by the state executive,” Singh said.

Speaking about so many Congress leaders switching over to the AAP, Singh said: “I heard from the people who are joining from the Congress that there is a negative environment. People are angry with their state leadership. AAP has a positive environment for work. We give appreciation to our workers and we have a young and energetic unit… that’s why people come to us.”

However, the path ahead for the AAP will be tough, according to political analyst Prof. Kaviraj of Lucknow University.

“UP already has three major parties which are cadre-based — BJP, SP and BSP. The SP and BJP, in particular, have a strong organisation in every district, so it is not easy to damage these parties. But AAP could damage the Congress because it is the weakest among the four major parties,” Kaviraj said.