With Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav announcing some of their candidates for the coming bypolls to 13 UP Assembly seats, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has started discussions with senior leaders of the state to finalise the party’s strategy.
The Gandhi scion has already made it clear that the Congress will not forge alliance with any party and will contest all the seats with full strength on its own.
Sources said Priyanka summoned senior leaders of UP to New Delhi on Friday and discussed with them the party’s strategy and probable candidates for the coming Assembly bypolls.
The UP leaders also discussed some names to replace Raj Babbar as Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president. They told Priyanka that the party was suffering a lot in UP due to the confusion whether Babbar would continue as state chief even after the worst-ever performance of the party in the state under his leadership.
The Congress had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections alone after the failure of its alliance with Samajwadi Party in the 2017 Assembly polls. Sources aid that the party’s strategy for the next Assembly elections will be decided in the coming bypolls.
A senior party leader revealed that the meeting at the residence of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was attended by former ministers RPN Singh, Jitin Prasada, Pramod Tiwari and several others and lasted for over one-and-half hours.
The sources said that majority of the leaders were of the view that the party should go it alone in UP in all future elections.
They said a final decision on the candidates for the bypolls and the new UPCC chief would be taken after getting approval of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.