Raj Babbar to lead Congress in UP polls

Ex-BSP leader Rajaram Pal, Imran Masood, ex-MP Rajesh Mishra and dalit leader Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhary made senior vice-presidents.

Actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar, a sitting MP from Uttarakhand, will lead the Uttar Pradesh Congress ahead of the crucial UP Assembly polls in 2017. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has ignored Mr Babbar’s Samajwadi Party background and caste and loyalty considerations in picking him to lead the battle for UP.

The party made former BSP leader Rajaram Pal, Imran Masood (controversial for hate speeches), former Varanasi MP Rajesh Mishra and dalit leader Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhary senior vice-presidents in the state unit of the party. Former UP Congress president Nirmal Khatri is now party screening committee chairman.

AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, along with Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, also an AICC general secretary, on Tuesday formally announced these appointments at a press conference here.

Mr Babbar’s name comes as a surprise not because it sends any message to the upper castes, backward castes or minorities, but because of his long association with the Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party from 1989 to 2006. He is seen as a junior leader in the Congress. “We were expecting Pramod Tiwari, Rajesh Mishra, Jitin Prasada, R.P.N. Singh — one of them — to become the UP Congress chief,” party insiders said.

Asked whether the Congress had ever appointed a person from outside the state to head the party in UP, a senior leader said he did not remember. Mr Babbar is from UP and has won parliamentary elections from there, but he is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand. His appointment reveals that the party lacks a face in UP and shows up the limitations of leaders who have always been in the Congress.

Party leaders are wondering whether Mr Babbar has been appointed to send a positive message to the Samajwadi Party because Mr Babbar has been soft on SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and other SP leaders, barring Amar Singh, or to please the BSP. The picture will become clearer once the Congress decides who, apart from the BJP, will be its main rival in the UP Assembly election.

Among the senior vice-presidents, Rajaram Pal was a BSP leader before joining the Congress. He was expelled from the Lok Sabha following the adoption of a motion calling for the expulsion of all 11 MPs caught in a sting operation. But Rajesh Mishra and Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhary are “original” Congress leaders.

Meanwhile, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad played down questions about Ms Priyanka Gandhi and whether she would campaign beyond Amethi and Rae Bareli. But he said that she, like other leaders, has a role and will continue to remain in UP. Party workers want her to campaign.

On his meeting Ms Gandhi on Tuesday morning, he shot back: “Is there any ban on meeting ”

Asked whether the Congress would project a face for chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, he said this was normally done when there was a sitting CM or a former CM. “We don’t have one such face in Uttar Pradesh,” he said. Asked about Mr Imran Masood, who was arrested for a hate speech in March 2014, he said, “Forget the past and look to the future.” He added that BJP leaders have made even worse speeches.