Lucknow: In a major organisational shake-up in the state ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, the Congress on Friday replaced Ajay Rai with three-time Rampur Khas MLA Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ as the state unit chief and appointed Saharanpur MP Imran Masood as the working president.The move signals a course correction by the party as it seeks to rebuild its organisation and widen its social reach in a state where it has struggled electorally for over a decade. The appointments bring together a prominent Brahmin face from eastern UP and a Muslim leader with influence in western UP, reflecting an attempt to strike a broader caste-regional balance ahead of the polls. The party has already appointed Rajendra Pal Gautam, a Dalit, as the state in charge.The current Congress Legislature Party leader and daughter of senior party leader and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari, Mona is considered close to the party’s central leadership and has been associated with several state-level campaigns. Masood, among the Congress’s most prominent leaders in western UP, is expected to strengthen the party’s outreach in a politically crucial region.Mishra (52) has been the Congress Legislature Party leader in UP assembly since 2019. She first entered the assembly through a bypoll in 2014 and retained the Rampur Khas seat in the 2017 and 2022 elections.Before entering the assembly, she served as block pramukh of Sangramgarh from 2002 to 2014 and was involved with cooperative and rural development institutions.She also served as general secretary of UP Pradesh Congress Committee and has held positions in cooperative bodies and on the board of Punjab National Bank.Masood’s appointment as working president is being seen as a move to attract and consolidate Muslim votes.A political analyst said the appointments suggested that the Congress had “laid its cards on the table” ahead of the 2027 polls, with the party seeking to bring together different social groups through its state leadership.“With Aradhana Mishra Mona, the party has a Brahmin face at the top while Imran Masood is a prominent Muslim face in a key organisational role now. With a Dalit as the AICC in charge of the state the party has attempted to put together a broader social coalition,” an analyst said.The leadership change also suggests that the Congress high command wants a fresh organisational team to lead its campaign into 2027. While Ajay Rai remained one of the party’s most visible faces in the state, the latest reshuffle indicates that the leadership believes a new social and political template is needed to revive the party’s prospects.Analysts also pointed to Mishra’s equation with India Bloc constituent Samajwadi Party leadership as an important factor as seat-sharing negotiations gather pace.“Unlike Ajay Rai, Mona has maintained an amicable equation with the SP leadership. Her being the face of the state Congress could make coordination between the two parties smoother as they work towards an alliance,” the analyst said, though the Congress and SP are yet to formally settle their seat-sharing arrangement for the 2027 polls.Besides these appointments, the party named Chaudhary Virendra Singh as leader of the Congress Legislature Party and appointed Devinder Nishad and Alok Prasad as senior vice-presidents of the state unit.
