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The Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar resigned on Wednesday, amid clamour for the appointment of a Brahmin face in the Hindi heartland State, and more youthful leaders in other provinces.
Former UP chief minister Kamlapati Tripathi’s grandson Lalitesh Tripathi, former MP and Union Minister Jitin Prasada, and other State leaders including Pramod Tiwari and Rajesh Mishra are believed to be in the race to head the Congress’ State unit.
Brahmins comprise 12-13 per cent of the electorate in UP, and the Congress has been straining to win them back for some years. The projection of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as the party’s CM face in the 2017 Assembly elections was part of this plan. However, following the alliance with the Samajwadi Party, Dikshit withdrew from the fray.
Now that Akhilesh Yadav’s SP and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have tied up, indicating an attempt to align the OBCs (45 per cent of the electorate) with the Dalits (20-21 per cent), with Muslims (18 per cent) as unstated supporters, the Congress is floundering with no caste base to call its own. It is therefore that the party is attempting to woo the Brahmins.
By-poll drubbing
The development was triggered by the Congress’ poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha by-polls to Phulpur and Gorakhpur. The party had lost its deposit in both seats, and polled 2.7 per cent and 2.03 per cent of the vote share respectively. The numbers appear even more dismal if the attempt is to woo the Brahmins. In Gorakhpur, for instance, assuming that each of the 18,858 votes that the Congress got is a Brahmin voter, it still makes for just a fraction of the 12 per cent Brahmin vote in the constituency.
Youth push
While the Congress is straining to make itself relevant in the country’s most politically critical province, party leader Shantaram Naik, who quit as the Goa unit chief on Tuesday, said the time has come for the old guard to make way for younger leaders.
Naik said his resignation was “inspired” by Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the party plenary about giving a boost to youth leadership.
On Wednesday, Naik said he would be happy if more leaders in the country were to make way for the younger generation. “I am happy that in a similar tone, UP PCC president Raj Babbar has also tendered his resignation,” he said in Panjim.
Notably, two days ago, the Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki had also reportedly tendered his resignation. But Solanki’s purported resignation was seen as a mark of protest at having been denied a Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat. He has since scotched reports that he has resigned.
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