Contrary to the claims of cutting the size of the new Committee for Uttar Pradesh Congress to half than the last one, Party finally surpassed even the last figure by giving a jumbo size Committee having 333 office bearers besides State president and 69 permanent invitee members. This figure not included the named of leaders who will be included in the UPCC media committee now by State president, Nirmal Khatri.
Sources said that the size of the Committee has been increased on request of state president, Khatri, as well as All India Congress General Secretary, Madhusudan Mistri, who is also incharge of the Party affairs after they were alerted of open resentment with the Party by the leaders, whose supporters would be left out of the Committee. Interestingly, it took more than six months for Khatri to decide the names of the Committee members, just to ensure that everyone would be happy. It may be mentioned here that he left the close lieutenants of former union minister, Beni Prasad Verma, in the Committee so he made another move by ensuring a place to one of his close confident in the UPCC Media Committee, which is yet to be announced by Khatri.
The Committee announced by the Party in New Delhi on Tuesday have Nirmal Khatri as Party President besides there are 34 leaders who have been inducted as vice-president, 64 leaders as general secretaries, 43 as organising secretaries, 107 as secretaries, 84 as executive members and 69 permanent invitees which mostly included former union minister, MPs, MlAs, ex-state presidents etc. Ex-legislator, Harish Bajpai has been retained as the treasurer. The committee had 81 Brahmins, 43 Thakurs, 5 SC, 2 ST, 55 Muslims, 61 OBCs, others 32 and women 35. The previous state committee headed by Khatri had 288 members which was dissolved after the lok Sabha election debacle.
Satyadev Tripathi, whose name also figured in the UPCC vice-president list, has been reportedly also retained as the chairman of the media committee while most of the spokespersons have been also given another chance though there names are yet not announced. Almost all the old leaders who were in the past committee have been accomodated in the new one. UP Congress spokesperson Amarnath Agarwal said that the state leadership has tried to maintain a balance in selecting the state office bearer with honour the senior leaders and giving chance to the youths.