New Delhi, May 31: Uttar Pradesh, with 80 Lok Sabha seats, is crucial to Rahul Gandhi’s plans to install a Congress government in Delhi after the 2014 general elections.
From 147 in 2004, the Congress tally went up by 60 in 2009. Now, party mandarins are working to notch up at least 300 seats in 2014 when Rahul is set to take over as Prime Minister. He is reportedly keen to head a government without the aid of allies.
In the 2009 polls , UP added a surprise 21 MPs to the kitty even without a well- oiled machinery. And now, the AICC general secretary has more than three years to nurture the party in the state.
Sources close to Rahul said he has divided the state into 10 zones and each has been given to a member of the parallel team he constituted in UP. They said he is focused on UP. With the right strategy, he could dislodge the BSP government in 2012 and more than double the Congress’s current LS tally from the state.
“ He inherited a moribund and leaderless party in the state, he gave more than a year to the current crop of leaders to prove their mettle.
But they failed him as they are busy with petty personal squabbles. So, the move to set up a parallel team of outsiders makes great sense,” said a source close to Rahul.
They said the strategy was drawn in consultation with AICC general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh, who was handpicked by Rahul to monitor UP’s political situation.
An AICC leader, however, sounded sceptical. He said the strategy had to be implemented with utmost care.
“ Local leaders may get demoralised and not cooperate with the imported team,” he said.
Ram Prakash, a Rajya Sabha MP who is in charge of the Saharanpur, Noida and Ghaziabad zones, however, allayed the fears saying there would be no conflict between Rahul’s team and the local leaders.
“ We are there to help them and the party, not boss around. We will be assisting them. We will gather information at every level — from blocks to constituency. We will work in coordination and give our assessment to Rahul Gandhi,” Prakash said.
The 10- member team has a mixture of youth, age and experience. While Haryanabased Ram Prakash, is an MSc, PhD and has authored many books, Narmada Prajapati, MLA from Bhopal, in his midforties, is efficient, articulate and well- versed in caste dynamics. In Madhya Pradesh’s factional Congress politics, he is considered close to Suresh Pachauri, who is not in the best of terms with Digvijay Singh.
Indore MLA Ashwini Joshi belongs to the Singh camp.
Govind Singh, a legislator from Bhind, is “ very resourceful” and knows UP well.
The other members of the team, too, have a proven track record.
—Agencies