LUCKNOW: After opting to abstain from bypoll contest to assembly segments, Uttar Pradesh Congress appears to be set to begin the process of carrying out organisational changes across the state. The revamp to the grassroots level is imperative and has been long overdue. Kharge, speaking at the Congress Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on Friday, stressed the need for a complete change across the organisation, from the grassroots level to the block, district level and above. As per Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai, the units will be reorganised in various districts and set up booth level committees across the state soon. “We will also rework on the whole organisation to strengthen the party in all the districts. We hope to complete this task within a month,” he said. Rai said that the process of making appropriate changes in the party organisation had already initiated wherever needed. All India Congress Committee incharges were touring different districts. A meeting to review the party organisation with the AICC secretary in charge and the UPCC president would be convened in the first week of December 2024. Though the Congress had appointed Ajai Rai as the new UPCC president in August 2023 (following the Congress’s defeat in the 2022 UP assembly elections), the party is yet to complete the process of setting up the organisation at the grassroots levels. UPCC general secretary (organisation) Anil Yadav said the AICC secretaries and the state’s office bearers had reviewed the functioning of the organisation and would let the party leaders know about the need for improvements wherever necessary. The Congress’s poor organisational structure had been a cause for serious concern and the party’s debacle in back to back electoral battles. The party is not considered a strong contender for power due to the poor organisational structure in the state. Though the Congress and the Samajwadi Party continue to be allies under the INDIA bloc banner in Uttar Pradesh, the grand old party needs to strengthen its organisational structure to be treated as an equal partner by the SP. The Congress decided not to field its candidates in the recently concluded by-elections to nine UP assembly seats and left the electoral field open for the Samajwadi Party. The move came as both the parties failed to reach a seat sharing understanding for the by-elections. Senior Congress leaders feel the party needs to have a stronger organisational base to become a strong ally of the SP to stake claim to a respectable number of seats in the 2027 UP assembly elections. “The Congress must rework the electoral strategy and the party must strengthen the organisation. It is high time the Congress focuses on strengthening the organisation,” said Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of department of political science, Lucknow University.
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