Ajay Kumar Lallu Replaces Raj Babbar As Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief

After months of suspense over the status of Raj Babbar's resignation, the Congress on Monday night finally announced Ajay Kumar Lallu as president of part's Uttar Pradesh unit. Lallu is the Congress Legislature Party leader in Uttar Pradesh and is a two-time MLA from Tamkuhi Raj constituency. However, he has now been replaced by Aradhana Misra 'Mona' as Legislature Party leader.

While Lallu is considered close to Congress General Secretary (Incharge, Uttar Pradesh East) Priyanka Gandhi, Mona is the daughter of prominent Congress leader Pramod Tiwari.

In another order, party chief Sonia Gandhi set up an advisory council -- whose 18 members include Ajay Rai, Ajay Kapoor, Mohsina Kidwai, PL Punia and RPN Singh -- to the AICC general secretary. Ajay Rai is the former MLA from Varanasi and Kidwai is a senior party leader.

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An eight-member working group for strategy and planning for UP was also set up. Jitin Prasada, Rajiv Shukla, Rajaram Pal, Imran Masood and Brij Lal Khabri are among its members.

According to a party communication, the four vice presidents are: Virender Chaudhary (UP East), Pankaj Malik (West), Laliteshpati Tripathi and Deepak Kumar for the party's frontal organisations such as NSUI and PYC. The party communication said that 12 general secretaries include Alok Prasad Rai, Vishwa Vijay Singh, Yusuf Ali Turk and Yogesh Dixit.

(With PTI inputs)