State Congress President Raj Babbar, as well as Gulam Nabi Azad, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee and also incharge of the Party affairs here in Uttar Pradesh, were on their way out.
Sources maintained that after finding that the two leaders had taken the Party to the bottom since they were kicked out of power in 1989, the new president of the Party, Rahul Gandhi, had made up his mind to replace both soon after completion of the three day AICC session beginning in New Delhi from March 16. Interestingly after the result of recent civic elections in the State left a sour note for Congress, which also performed poorly in the traditional strongholds of Amethi and Rae Bareli districts, the Party had no hope and even apprehensive that both their candidates in Phulpur and Gorakhpur by-polls scheduled for March 11, might lose their deposits.
A senior leader in the AICC claimed that when the Party had made a massive improvement in the BJP strong hold areas like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan etc, in Uttar Pradesh, where the two regional parties, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had a better stake, the BJP had sidelined both but was surprising is that the Congress was pushed to the new bottom. The leader said this worst performance was witnessed when the high command position Raj Babbar, having a large mass appeal and veteran Party leader, Gulam Nabi Azad to nurse the Party.
Citing the results, the leader said that in the first election, i.e 2014 Parliament elections fought under Azad and Babbar, only Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi somehow managed to retain their seats bringing the Party’s tally from 22 in 2009 to just 2 in 2014. Again in 2012 Assembly elections, the Party never in the history had not able to reach even to the double figure. The Party only managed to send 7 MlAs to the Assembly that too when they fought in alliance with Samajwadi Party. He claimed that Babbar offered to resign but Rahul still gave him more opportunity to improve the thing in UP.
According to leader, the high command got the biggest upset from UP when they found that during the recent civic polls, Babbar and his team could not even find a suitable candidate for any seat including in lucknow. The leader said that what is more shocking for the party than to find that in lucknow, where they were number two in the past mayoral elections in the State capital, in this poll they also lost even their deposit. The leader claimed that in wake of all above and finding that many allegations were also made that non-political leaders were given command to run Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee by Babbar, Rahul Gandhi has made up his mind and would remove both Azad and Babbar soon after the AICC session will be over next month.