Lucknow: Assembly elections due next year, the Congress Friday replaced its Uttar Pradesh state president Ajay Rai with Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’, the three-term MLA from Rampur Khas.
The party also appointed Saharanpur MP Imran Masood as working president of the state unit.
Mishra, earlier the Congress Legislature Party leader in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, assumes the role at a time when the Congress is in talks with ally Samajwadi Party to finalise a seat-sharing formula.
A Brahmin leader, Mishra is the daughter of Congress veteran Pramod Tiwari and began her political journey at the grassroots level as a block pramukh in Pratapgarh before she moved to the state legislature.
Block pramukh to UPCC chief
Born in Prayagraj in 1974, Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ joined the Congress in 1998. In 2002, she contested the election for block pramukh of Sangramgarh in Pratapgarh and won. She subsequently served three consecutive terms as block pramukh.
An alumnus of Allahabad University, she also worked in the corporate sector, including with Sahara India, and was associated with various non-profits before taking the political plunge.
उत्तर प्रदेश कांग्रेस कमेटी के अध्यक्ष पद का महत्वपूर्ण दायित्व सौंपे जाने पर कांग्रेस अध्यक्ष आदरणीय श्री @kharge जी, हम सभी की मार्गदर्शक आदरणीय श्रीमती सोनिया गांधी जी, हमारे नेता, जननायक आदरणीय @RahulGandhi जी, आदरणीय @priyankagandhi जी तथा कांग्रेस के समस्त शीर्ष नेतृत्व के…
— Aradhana Misra-Mona (@aradhanam7000) October 3, 2026
Her political career took a decisive turn in 2014 when her father, Pramod Tiwari, moved to the Rajya Sabha. Mishra contested the bypoll from Rampur Khas and won, entering the Uttar Pradesh Assembly for the first time. The Tiwari family has long been associated with Rampur Khas. Pramod Tiwari won the seat nine consecutive times, from 1980 to 2012.
After winning an Assembly by-poll in 2014, Mishra retained the seat in the 2017 Assembly elections despite the BJP’s strong performance across the state. In 2022, she defeated BJP’s Nagesh Pratap Singh by 14,741 votes to win the seat for a third consecutive term.
She was again chosen as the Congress Legislature Party leader in Uttar Pradesh, a position she held until now.
The Pramod Tiwari factor
Mishra’s elevation also brings renewed attention to the political influence and organisational network of her father, Pramod Tiwari, who is currently the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House. Tiwari has remained a key political figure in Uttar Pradesh for decades, and is known in political circles for maintaining relationships across party lines.
His election to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 came at a time when the Congress did not have the numbers on its own to send him to the Upper House. He was elected with the support of the Samajwadi Party. According to Congress functionaries, Tiwari and Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav shared a close bond over the years.
Tiwari was again elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2022 from Rajasthan. His candidature was backed by the state Congress leadership, including then chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
Tiwari’s daughter Aradhana Mishra, meanwhile, has built her own political capital. One example often cited by Congress leaders is from the 2022 Assembly elections, when the Samajwadi Party did not field a candidate against her in Rampur Khas. At the time, the two parties were not in a formal alliance.
Relationship with Priyanka’s team
Mishra also remained close to the Congress leadership during a period when several political legatees walked away from the party. Among them were Jitin Prasada, R.P.N. Singh and Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, who left the party after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took charge of party affairs in eastern Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Mishra remains a key member of Priyanka’s team. The two worked closely during the Congress party’s ‘Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon’ campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections.
Besides Mishra, a Brahmin, and Masood, a prominent Muslim face, the party has also appointed Devinder Nishad and Alok Prasad as senior vice presidents of the Uttar Pradesh Congress, bringing OBC and Dalit representation into the new state team.
The appointments are being interpreted by political observers as an attempt to broaden the Congress’ social representation while strengthening its organisational position ahead of the 2027 polls. The combination is also being viewed in the context of the Congress’ traditional support among sections of Brahmins, Muslims and Dalits, although the party’s new appointments include a broader social mix than that formulation.
For the Congress, the choice of Mishra could also have implications for its relationship with the Samajwadi Party. The two parties had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together.
A senior UP Congress leader told ThePrint that state in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam had pushed for a change at the top and initially favoured an OBC face. However, focus shifted towards Mishra after consultations with leaders in Uttar Pradesh.
This leader said Gautam subsequently met Pramod Tiwari at his Delhi residence last month. Discussions around Mishra’s possible elevation gathered momentum after that meeting, it is learnt. Gautam also knew that he would need Tiwari’s endorsement to replace Ajay Rai from a position he had held since August 2023, so he too pushed for Mishra’s name.
After being appointed UP Congress president, Mishra thanked the party’s central leadership and said her immediate priority would be to build confidence among Congress workers across the state. “It is true that the time is short and the challenges are many. My priority will be to instil confidence among every Congress worker across the state that we are going to form the government in 2027,” she said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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