New Delhi/Lucknow: The Indian National Congress announced a major organisational reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, appointing three-time Rampur Khas MLA Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ as the new president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. She succeeds Ajay Rai, with the appointments taking immediate effect.
Saharanpur MP Imran Masood has been appointed working president of the state unit, while Devinder Nishad and Alok Prasad have been named senior vice-presidents. Chaudhary Virendra Singh has been appointed the new Leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
Mishra, popularly known as Mona, represents Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh district and has won the constituency three times. She first entered the Assembly through a by-election in 2014 and subsequently retained the seat in the 2017 and 2022 elections. She was serving as the Congress Legislature Party leader in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly before the organisational changes.
She is the daughter of senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari. Her appointment places a woman MLA with a long-standing electoral base at the helm of the state Congress organisation.
The reshuffle comes as political parties prepare for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The Congress has not publicly stated that the appointments are aimed at any particular social group; assessments about their potential electoral implications have been attributed by media reports to political observers and party sources.
In a parallel organisational decision, former Indian hockey captain and Punjab MLA Pargat Singh was appointed president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
