New Delhi: Aiming to engineer a winning political combination ahead of the crucial 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress has in a strategic pre-poll overhaul. Handing the reins to three-time Rampur Khas MLA Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ as the new UP unit chief, the party has also elevated Saharanpur MP Imran Masood to working president.
His appointment gives the Congress a prominent Muslim face in Uttar Pradesh and also sends a message to its INDIA bloc partner, the Samajwadi Party, ahead of future seat-sharing talks.
She replaces Ajay Rai, who had headed the state unit since August 2023. Before entering the assembly, she served as a block pramukh of the Congress party for three terms from 2001. She had a visible role in the Congress campaign led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during the 2022 assembly election. She was among the two Congress candidates who won in the 2022 election, when the party was reduced to two seats in the 403-member assembly. The Congress has been trying to rebuild its organisation in the state after its weak performance in the 2022 assembly election. The party will now have to build its election machinery around this leadership team before voters return to the polls in 2027.
Mishra travelled across Uttar Pradesh during the party’s women-centric campaign built around the slogan “Ladki hun, lad sakti hun”. The party has made more changes in the state team. Devinder Nishad and Alok Prasad have been appointed senior vice presidents. Underpinning this overhaul is a textbook exercise in social engineering. By placing Eastern UP Brahmin leader Aradhana Mishra along with Western UP Muslim heavyweight Imran Masood and Nishad leader Devendra Nishad, the party is attempting to build an inclusive and broad-based coalition that is capable of challenging rival regional blocs. She has spent much of her political career in Uttar Pradesh. She later became the Congress Legislature Party leader in the state assembly, a position she held until her appointment as the state president. Her appointment gives the Congress a prominent Brahmin face at the top of its Uttar Pradesh unit. The move has been described as an effort to reach out to a community that had traditionally supported the Congress before a large section of its vote moved towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Virendra Chaudhary will now lead the Congress Legislature Party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, a position previously held by Mishra.
