With A String Of Resignations and Rebels, Priyanka’s UP Congress Is Now Being Called ‘Lallu Congress’

The Congress in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is gasping for survival as it faces a growing revolt in its ranks.

Senior Congress leader Vinod Chaudhary, also a former legislator, has resigned from the disciplinary committee of the UP Congress.

In a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Chaudhary said it is difficult for him to work in the 'changed circumstances'.

"In the new UP Congress Committee (UPCC), I do not even know majority of the office bearers and it will be difficult working with them. Hence I wish to resign as member of the party's disciplinary committee," he said.

The resignation, coming a day after former Congress MP Ratna Singh joined the BJP, is another in the series of jolts that the Congress has been experiencing after the change of guard in the UPCC.

Earlier, former MLC Siraj Mehndi had resigned from the membership of AICC and PCC in protest against the exclusion of Shias from the new committee.

If sources are to be believed, more resignations within the party are on their way.

"Some more senior leaders are feeling stifled in the new dispensation. The new team shows no respect for the seniors and some of the leaders have not even been offered a chair at the party office. For those who have spent their best years in the Congress, this is objectionable. This is the new Priyanka culture which is leading to the disintegration of the state unit," said a senior leader.

A former youth Congress leader Tarun Patel had even termed the UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu as a 'Lallu-Panju (meaning an irrelevant person in local parlance)'.

The party has not even taken cognisance of the statement and, as a result, the UP Congress in now popularly known as 'Lallu Congress'.

Apart from this, the Congress also finds itself incapable of initiating action against the rebels.

Congerss MLA Aditi Singh defied the party whip and attended the special Assembly session on 2 October. She was served a show-cause notice on 4 October and asked to submit her reply within 48 hours.

It has been more than 12 days but Aditi Singh has not even taken cognisance of the notice, leave alone replying to it.

Rakesh Singh, another rebel Congress MLA, has already stopped attending party functions and meetings and is inclined towards the BJP.

Both these legislators, incidentally, are from Rae Bareli, the constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)