Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has probably had a change of heart and not all zonal chiefs in Uttar Pradesh are likely to be changed.
According to a senior Congress leader, the zonal system is likely to continue but those zonal chiefs who will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections will be replaced.
“It has been seen that zonal chiefs who will be contesting the LS polls have not been able to give time for party work and they are mostly pre-occupied with their own constituencies. In such cases, the zonal chiefs will be replaced,” said the leader.
In September last year, Mr Rahul Gandhi had split the state into eight divisions and had appointed a zonal head for each division. The zonal chiefs included Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood, union ministers R.P.N. Singh, Jitin Prasada, MPs P.L. Punia, Raja Ram Pal, former MP Choudhury Brijendra Singh and MLAs Anugrah Narain Singh and MP Vivek Kumar Singh.
The MPs who are all set to seek re-election to the Lok Sabha are R.P.N. Singh, Jitin Prasada, P.L. Punia and Raja Ram Pal and it is obvious that these leaders will need to devote more time to their constituencies in the coming weeks.
“Some of the sitting MPs have already expressed their desire to step down from the coordinator’s post and concentrate on their election. It is likely that these MPs will be replaced. The party high command wants to give more time to the zonal system before doing away with it,” the leader said.
The Congress is expected to appoint some former MPs and MLAs as zonal heads because they are better connected to ground realities and also realise the need to strengthen the Congress at the grassroots level. “The zonal heads who will be appointed will not have multiple responsibilities and will focus on their work,” the leader added.
Party sources said that the zonal system also suited the UPCC chief Nirmal Khatri who is now being perceived as a ‘weak and indifferent’ leader.