Even as the process of organisational elections in UP Congress draws to a close, hectic lobbying begins for the post of UPCC president.
While a section of the UP Congress wants Rita Bahuguna Joshi to be given a second term in the post, another section of the party favours a change.
According to party sources, those favouring Ms Joshi’s continuation in the post claim that she has worked relentlessly for the party’s revival in UP and the Congress organisation has finally started bustling with activity under her leadership.
“With her aggressive posture towards the Mayawati government, she has succeeded in mobilising party cadres. The results in the last Lok Sabha elections prove this. Rita Bahuguna Joshi managed to sustain momentum given to the party by Mr Rahul Gandhi and as a result, we even managed to win the Lucknow west assembly seat in the by-elections. This seat was always a BJP stronghold but the Congress won it back after two decades,” says one of her supporters.
Her supporters argue that Joshi suffered personal setbacks — which included her trip to jail and her house being torched by alleged BSP workers — but did not give up her fight against the misrule of the Mayawati government.
Interestingly, her detractors, on the other hand, are lobbying against her being given a second term on the very same grounds. They insist that her remarks, on occasions more than one, have caused severe embarrassment to the party leadership and her anti-dalit statements have also alienated dalits from the party to an extent. Her inability to carry along all sections of the party has also intensified factionalism in the UP Congress and her differences with CLP leader Pramod Tiwari have acquired legendary proportions.
The party leadership, on the other hand, is keeping cards close to its chest and there are no indications as yet about the possible names for the UPCC president.
If sources are to be believed, the Congress high command is keen to cut out caste politics when it makes the choice for the coveted post.
Some of the names doing the rounds include Congress MPs Nirmal Khatri, P.L. Punia and Raj Babbar, who successfully broke the caste mould to record a spectacular victory in the Ferozabad byelection last year.
Since elections in UP are less than two years away, the Congress high command is determined to entrust the responsibility to one who can translate the strategy of Rahul Gandhi into reality.