• Ajay Kumar Lallu

The Congress party has a deep, intimate and historical connection with Uttar Pradesh. During the freedom struggle, the political administration of the country was run from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. But because of the efforts of the Congress, Uttar Pradesh gradually became the centre of politics. The political consciousness aroused in Uttar Pradesh by the Congress movement can be felt across Indian villages even today. Perhaps because of this consciousness itself, Uttar Pradesh is glorified as the state which gave the highest number of Prime Ministers to the country.

Even today, Congress workers are present in every village, cherishing Congress leaders from their heart and soul. But in the course of time, we must have made some mistakes knowingly or unknowingly, due to which the Congress in Uttar Pradesh has been marginalized in a way. On one hand, we had been forming governments for years in a row and on the other hand, we have been sitting away from power for the last 32 years. Our role has got restricted even as the primary opposition party. But about three years ago, the Congress party took a great decision. The party appointed Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as General Secretary and handed over the charge of Uttar Pradesh to her. Right from that historic day of January 23, 2019, till date, the Congress party embarked upon a path of revival which only promises ‘Hope’ for the future. Gone are the days for us to lose, that’s the past. Here are the days to gain, to achieve.

Organizational Restructuring

At the time when Priyanka ji took charge, the condition of the party organization was in turmoil. In a way, the existence of the party organization itself was questionable. She decided to build the Uttar Pradesh Congress afresh. We had the foundation, but the dilapidated building that stood on it had to be redesigned. The way this great work was done in the last two years, the hard work that was invested, was only possible because of Priyanka ji.

For the first few months, the challenge to contest the Lok Sabha elections loomed large. After that, she started making radical changes in the organization from the state executive to the lower level. She began with the transformation of a massive and almost dormant state organization into a small but influential and active one. While delegating leadership and responsibility to all the people from various sections of the organization, she ensured that every functionary gets the responsibilities commensurate with their positions and everyone has an accountability. Handing over the reins of State Presidentship to a worker like me in October 2019, was also the result of her deliberation.

At the completion of the process of making alterations in the organization at the state level, started the process of its expansion. I conjecture that many decades later it was decided as to who and how the District President would be, how his/her executive would be and how he/she would discharge his/her responsibilities. After the district heads, it was the turn of the block committees. After many years, the way 834 Block Congress Committees have been formed in the state itself testifies that the nature of the organization has changed.

After this, started the work of ‘Creation’ of the ‘Organization’ as per Priyanka Ji’s instructions. Congress workers from all over the state got involved intaking the organization up to the level of Nyaya Panchayat and Gram Panchayat. Presidents were appointed in over eight thousand Nyaya Panchayats in a phased and time bound manner and they were entrusted with the task of forming their own executive committees. After that, Nyaya Panchayats started forming Gram Panchayats which subsequently formed Booth Committees. The work of ‘Creation’ is going on even today at an uninterrupted pace and the booth committees of Congress are gradually coming up. There were initially 1.63 lakh booths in the state. The number of booths is going to increase further in 2022, but if the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee has accepted the challenge of going to such a large number of booths, it would not have been possible without the effective presence of Priyanka ji.

Strength of Training

When Mahatma Gandhi had been engaged in making the Congress a party of the common people, he started the training programme for the workers for the first time. Wardha Ashram had become the centre of training. Since then, the party has realized the importance of training. The work of training in the party went on in a number of ways. Rajiv Gandhi underlined the importance of training once again and started training afresh. Then, Smt. Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji also recognized the importance of training.

Training continued in Uttar Pradesh but it was Priyanka Gandhi Ji who started the work of training in a systematic and organized manner. She called trainers from all over and started training the workers of the state.

The work of this training got concretized when Priyanka ji decided to implement the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghelji’s training model in Uttar Pradesh. First of all, the District and the City Presidents were trained. After that, the Block and the Nyaya Panchayat Presidents were trained, but that was not enough. There was a need to train the ground workers.

Priyanka Ji’s team curated a module of its own in Uttar Pradesh and started making a formal master trainer. Out of hundred people, 35 people were selected to be the master trainers to train the workers. Today, seven teams of five trainers each are giving training to the office-bearers and workers of village panchayats at the assembly level across the state. By the middle of December, the training work of about 70 percent of the gram panchayats of the state has been completed.

The workers are being given information about five subjects in this training programme. First ‘History and Achievements of Congress’, second ‘Truth of BJP and RSS’ and third ‘Who has been Dismantling Uttar Pradesh’. Apart from this, all the workers and office-bearers are being trained in ‘Booth Management’ and ‘Social Media Management’. Its impact is so widespread that today Congress workers in every village do not keep silent on the questions of the opposition, they have started answering back and asking questions themselves.

This training is so effective that after this, the All-India Congress Committee has decided to implement this model of Priyanka Gandhi ji in the country at Pan-India level.

Activities of the Organization

Establishing an organization and getting training is not enough because nothing works out, unless political workers work at the grassroots level.

Priyanka Gandhi ji knows this very well. That is why she made such programmes one after the other, so that each worker can become active at the grassroots level to raise the voice of the common people on political platforms.

Whether it was about farmers or NishaadSamaj, workers at every level, organized agitations and went among the people to assure that the Congress party would take up every problem of theirs and would stand united in their fight.

Juggling between the two waves of Corona in the state, when the people became helpless with the government sitting idle, it was only the Congress Party that was standing with the people of Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Priyanka ji. Whether it was the arrangements for bringing migrant workers home during the lockdown, arranging for medicines and oxygen or distribution of ration and food, only Congress workers were active in the entire state and Priyanka ji had been monitoring all the activities.

Mass Struggle

In the last three years, Congress has been the only party which has been seen fighting for every issue related to the people.

On every issue from Hathras to Unnao and Lakhimpur, Priyanka ji has played her role as expected from a leader of opposition. She was repeatedly stopped, detained, even arrested by the police, but she did not get deterred. Every party worker fought under her leadership.

In the last three years, more than 18,000 Congress workers were arrested or detained for the period of three days to three months. How many workers of SP and BSP, two parties claiming to be the main opposition parties, were arrested? On how many issues did they take to streets?

Congress is a party that has emerged out of struggle. The party is once again struggling under the leadership of Priyanka ji and is standing with the people.

New Congress

Today, after three decades, a new Congress is seen in Uttar Pradesh.

Leaders of the opposition and workers also freely admit that with the arrival of Priyanka ji and her thinking, Congress has got a new lease of life in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress which is visible in this largest state of India today is the new Congress.

With young faces on the plane, with senior leaders intact, this Congress is full of energy and self-confidence. Elections are imminent and workers are gearing up.

We are well aware that we have a strenuous and a long way to go, but we are all ready.

Nehru Ji was very fond of Robert Frost’s poem, ‘And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.’ This poem also acts as a motto for us under the leadership of Priyanka ji.

The Author is President, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee