Congress appoints six AICC secretaries in Uttar Pradesh; strengthens Priyanka Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia’s teams

New Delhi: Congress has appointed six AICC secretaries for Uttar Pradesh with three each being given the responsibility of UP East and UP West. As per orders of Congress president Rahul Gandhi , Rana Goswami, Dhiraj Gurjar and Rohit Chaudhary have been appointed as AICC Secretaries for UP West and were attached with General Secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia. [caption id=“attachment_6074081” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress president Rahul Gandhi with party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia. PTI[/caption] Zubair Khan, Kumar Ashish and Bajirao Khade have been appointed as AICC Secretaries for UP East and attached with General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi. With the announcement of these names, Congress has chosen a blend of experienced and low-key faces of the organisation to serve as the secretary for both regions of the politically significant Uttar Pradesh . Designated in Scindia’s team, Rana Goswami hails from Assam and has worked in Uttar Pradesh before as well. Similarly, Zubair Khan hailing from Rajasthan and a former MLA from state’s Ramgarh constituency has also worked as convener secretary in Bundelkhand region. The other two individuals who have been given place in the team of Jyotiraditya Scindia include Dhiraj Gujar, another former MLA from Rajasthan and considered close to Sachin Pilot. Another AICC secretary for UP West, Rohit Chaudhary has served as the Chairman of NSUI. Similarly, in Priyanka's eastern UP region , former chief of Bihar Youth Congress Kumar Ashish has been given place alongside Bajirao Khade who serves as Maharashtra state convener of Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan (RGPRS). Both these leaders are known to keep a low profile in the party. Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia have been holding marathon meetings for the past several days. During the 4-day Lucknow tour, they had met with party workers from the 80 Lok Sabha seats of the state. As per party sources, both the leaders want to prepare their teams before the next tour to UP and work is also underway to finalise the coordinators for every Lok Sabha seat of the state. Priyanka and Scindia were appointed as the general secretaries for UP East and UP West respectively in January 2019. Since the announcement of SP-BSP alliance for the coming Lok Sabha polls in the state where two parties will contest on 38 seats each, the Congress leadership has been leaving nothing unturned to retain the party’s lost ground in the state, where they won only two seats—Rae Bareli and Amethi—in the last Lok Sabha polls.