Lucknow: In a significant organizational reshuffle aimed at strengthening its grassroots presence ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Indian National Congress has announced the names of 133 new district and city presidents across the state. The appointments were approved by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and announced by the party’s National General Secretary KC Venugopal on Thursday evening.
With a focus on ensuring caste and social balance, the Congress has prioritized expanding its support base by strategically leveraging the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak – Backward, Dalit, Minority) factor in its appointments.
Key Appointments:
- Lucknow: Rudra Daman Singh ‘Bablu’ has been named District President, while Dr. Shehzad and Amit Tyagi have been appointed City Presidents.
- Unnao: Surendra Kushwaha (District), Faiz Farooqui (City)
- Kanpur Nagar: Sandeep Shukla (District), Pawan Gupta (City)
- Kanpur Dehat: Ambrish Singh Gaur (District)
- Bareilly: Ashfaq Solanki (District), Dinesh Gupta ‘Dadda’ (City)
- Moradabad: Vinod Gumber (District), Junaid Quraishi (City)
- Ayodhya: Chet Narayan Singh (District), Sunil Krishna Gautam (City)
- Amethi: Pradeep Singhal (District)
- Rae Bareli: Pankaj Tiwari (District), Dheeraj Srivastava (City)
- Sultanpur: Abhishek Singh Rana (District), Shakeel Ansari (City)
- Gorakhpur: Rajesh Kumar Tiwari (District), Ravi Pratap Nishad (City)
- Varanasi (PM’s Constituency): Rajeshwar Singh Patel (District), Raghvendra Chaubey (City)
Appointments were also made in several other key districts, including Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun, Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Etawah, Auraiya, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Basti, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Barabanki, Budaun, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Lakhimpur, Hardoi, Sitapur, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Shamli, Bijnor, Sambhal, Amroha, Hapur, Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), Baghpat, Kasganj, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Etah, Hathras, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Azamgarh, Mau, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Maharajganj, Prayagraj (Ganga Par and Yamuna Par), Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Kushinagar, Ballia, Deoria, Bhadohi.
Notably, Vijay Shekhar Mall ‘Roshan’ has been named District President of Deoria and Mirza Khurshid Ahmed as City President. Wasim Ansari has taken charge in Bhadohi.
Strategic Focus on 2027 Elections
This reshuffle comes in response to recent organizational changes made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, which had also announced new district and metropolitan presidents. The Congress’s move aims to revitalize its cadre and bolster its reach in rural and urban areas by tapping into local leadership.
Party insiders reveal that these appointments are part of a broader plan to prepare a robust network for mobilization and outreach in the lead-up to the assembly elections, with a calculated focus on socially diverse representation.
The Congress hopes that the new appointments will infuse fresh energy into the party’s state unit and provide a much-needed push to regain political ground in Uttar Pradesh, a state with significant electoral weight in national politics.
