Raj Babbar steps down as Uttar Pradesh Congress chief after party's dismal performance in Lok Sabha bypolls

Raj Babbar on Wednesday resigned from the post of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief.

Sources close to the matter said that the party may replace him with a Brahmin to lure the upper-class vote bank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to sources, Jitin Prasad, Rajesh Mishra and Laliteshpati Tripathi are the front-runners in the race for the new Congress president. The party can also choose four deputies, one for each zone in the state. 

The development comes after the Congress' dismal performance in recent Lok Sabha bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

The two seats hold importance in state politics and the bypolls there were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath resigned from his Gorakhpur seat to form BJP government in the state, and Phulpur representative Keshav Prasad Maurya stepped down to take the post of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister.