A guessing game has begun in the Congress on the continuation of incumbent Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Nirmal Khatri till the Lok Sabha elections.
The speculation is rife in the party circles after opinion polls predicted the Congress to remain in the single digit in the state.
Mr Khatri, the sitting Lok Sabha member, is seen as a gentleman with a clean image. But how would he revive the party in the state sharply divided on the caste lines, insiders asked.
According to them, the numbers of BJP in the state is going to increase with Narendra Modi, or without him, for the simple reason as the role of the Samajwadi Party and the BJP have been complementary and supplementary to each other.
They further said that although Dalits, Brahmins and minorities have been the Congress’ political constituency in the state, dalits have moved towards the BSP, minorities have been divided between the SP and the BSP and brahmins are in a double mind.
Brahmins want to remain with power and could move towards the BJP if the latter expands its political space.
“Unfortunately, we do not have caste leaders. The PCC chief and the CLP leader have been lacking appeal to bring back our core constituency,” they said.
The Congress party have been making experiments in the state. It had fought the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly polls under Brahmins (Rita Bahuguna and Pramod Tiwari) and minorities(Salman Khurshid). It had also made a Thakur PCC president but that did not help.
Recently, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed eight zonal in-charges and co-ordinators in UP by replacing the heavyweights.