AICC general secretary and UP in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and Chairman of Co-ordination committee Pramod Tiwari were missing from the main banner and hoarding of the party for the launch ofthe party's poll campiagn '27 saal, UP behal'.
The banners, posters and hoardings with the title '27 Saal- UP Behal' were sent to all senior leaders by UP Congress Committee and also contains a toll free number-80901-80901 urging the public to join the Congress.
However, the absence of both Azad and Tiwari had upset their supporters who claimed that it would dent the party’s prospect particularly when it needs minority votes and had wrmed up to Brahmin voters by projecting Sheila Dikshit as CM candidate.
It may be mentioned that while Azad is a senior Muslim face in the Congress, Tiwari too is veteran Brahmin leader from UP.
The banner has the picture of party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the left while state chief Raj Babbar, CM face Sheila Dixit and campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh on the right.
However, two circles have been left blank where the local leaders can put the photo of leaders of their choice. On the upper portion, there are photos of past Congress leaders ranging from Mahatma Gandhi to Rajeev Gandhi and also have photos of Abdul Kalam Azad and Dr B R Ambedkar. But the missing photos of Azad and Tiwari have raised questions and the Congress leaders in UP are confused.
A senior leader claimed here that there is no clarification by the party on the issue but it could be an effort to repeat the Bihar strategy where no Muslim face was promoted ahead of the Assembly polls.
"The photo of Pramod Tiwari could be missing due to his closeness with ruling Samajwadi Party and the party does not want to embarrass itself during the polls while attacking the Akhilesk Yadav government," the leader asserted.