Congress appoints Brijlal Khabri as its UP unit chief

The Congress on Saturday appointed former MP and Dalit leader Brijlal Khabri as the chief of Uttar Pradesh Congress committee (UPCC).

The UPCC chief’s post had been lying vacant since March when Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’ stepped down following the party’s rout in the UP assembly polls.

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The party had been struggling to find a new PCC chief for the past six months.

Former MP

Khabri, who quit the BSP to join the Congress in 2016, has served one Lok Sabha term (elected on BSP ticket from UP’s Jalaun seat in the1999 LS polls) and one term in Rajya Sabha (2008-2014).

Acting party president Sonia Gandhi also appointed six regional heads in the UPCC– Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Ajai Rai, Virendra Chaudhary, Nakul Dubey, Anil Yadav and Yogesh Dixit.

Dalit leader

The appointment of a Dalit PCC chief is in line with Congress UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s attempt to reach out to the electorally formidable SC community in UP that has, in recent years, been moving away from Mayawati’s BSP.

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Incidentally, Mallikarjun Kharge, the unofficial choice of the Gandhis in the upcoming Congress presidential polls, is also a Dalit leader.

(With Agency inputs)