Congress dissolves its Uttar Pradesh committees, sets up panel to address complaints

Following its Lok Sabha drubbing, the party is looking into complaints of gross indiscipline while it attempts to set its house in order.

File photo of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressing a Congress rally | Twitter @INCIndia

New Delhi: In a bid to set its house in order in Uttar Pradesh after the drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress dissolved its district committees in the state on Monday and decided to set up a three-member panel to look into complaints of gross indiscipline during the election.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has given its nod to large-scale changes in the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit, approving the proposals submitted by its general secretary in-charge UP East Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and general secretary in-charge UP West Jyotiraditya Scindia, a statement issued by Congress general secretary organisation K C Venugopal said.

As Assembly bypolls in the state approach, the party has also decided to depute a two-member team to oversee election preparations in all the Assembly seats in eastern and western Uttar Pradesh where the bypolls are scheduled to take place.

The AICC has also decided to constitute a three-member disciplinary committee to look into complaints of gross indiscipline during the recently-held Lok Sabha polls, the statement said.

Ajay Kumar Lallu, the leader of the Congress Legislative Party, has been appointed in-charge for making organisational changes in UP East for a defined period, the party said.

Scindia will announce the name of the person who will be in charge of making organisational changes in UP West, it added.

The shake up in the party’s state unit comes after Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia held review meetings following the Congress’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, in which it managed to win only 52 seats nationally.

Bypolls are due for 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh after the respective MLAs were elected to Parliament.

Priyanka Gandhi and Scindia, who were appointed as the party general secretaries just ahead of the parliamentary polls, had campaigned vigorously for the Congress candidates in Uttar Pradesh.

But of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Congress could manage to win only Raebareli. Even party president Rahul Gandhi lost to Union minister Smriti Irani from his family stronghold of Amethi.