The surprise appointment of actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar as president of Uttar Pradesh Congress on Tuesday has once again reaffirmed Rahul Gandhi’s preference for outsiders over party loyalists. Babbar was earlier with the Samajwadi Party and joined the Congress in 2008.
A host of names were in the fray for this crucial post ahead of next year’s important assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. With poll strategist Prashant Kishor suggesting that the party project a Brahmin face, the names doing the rounds included former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, former Union minister Jitin Prasad and state leaders Pramod Tiwari and Rajesh Mishra. Former Union minister and party spokesperson RPN Singh, from Other Backward Classes, was also in contention in the belief that his appointment would help in reaching out to the non-Yadav backward classes.
Predictably, Raj Babbar’s appointment created ripples in the party and will fuel resentment in the state party unit in the coming days. This was evident from the sullen reactions of Uttar Pradesh party leaders. “There had been so much talk over the past few weeks that the Congress will field a Brahmin face. What kind of a message are we sending by appointing Raj Babbar…in one stroke we have alienated the Brahmins,” a Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh pointed out.
Baffled party
Babbar’s appointment has also baffled the party rank and file as he does not figure anywhere in Uttar Pradesh’s caste matrix, having no roots in any constituency. He has represented Agra and Ferozabad constituencies in the Lok Sabha and moved to Ghaziabad in 2014 when he lost to General VK Singh. He is presently a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand. “I guess you can say Babbar is a pan-UP face, “ remarked another Congress leader sarcastically.
With all other political parties in Uttar Pradesh going in for elaborate social engineering in the selection of their functionaries, Raj Babbar ‘s appointment stands out like a sore thumb. On the flip side, it could be argued that the Congress opted for Babbar in the hope that his appeal will cut across caste lines. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary incharge of Uttar Pradesh, said as much while dismissing the charge that Babbar is an outsider and that his appointment does not send out any significant political message. “Raj Babbar is beyond caste and religion,” he remarked. “He is a good campaigner and attracts big crowds…we need somebody who can campaign across the state,” he added.
It is not Babbar alone who comes with the outsider tag but two of the four new senior vice-presidents of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit named on Tuesday are also fairly recent entrants to the Congress. While Rajaram Pal was with the Bahujan Samaj Party, Imran Masood crossed over from the Samajwadi Party. The two others – Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhary and Rajesh Mishra – have old Congress links. These appointments have been justified on the ground that they take care of caste configurations in the poll-bound state. Chaudhary is a Dalit, Mishra is the party’s Brahmin face, Pal belongs to the Other Backward Classes and Masood represents the minorities. In fact, Masood’s elevation has also created a stir as it has the potential of further polarising the communally surcharged political atmosphere in Western Uttar Pradesh. The young leader from Saharanpur was jailed in 2014 for his hate speech.
No lessons learnt
The latest rounds of appointments shows that Rahul Gandhi has not learnt any lessons from his past experiences. In keeping with his fascination for “outsiders”, the Congress vice-president had promoted former Samajwadi Party leader Beni Prasad Varma after he joined the party ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Not only was he given a ministerial berth in the United Progressive Alliance government but he was also inducted into the Congress Working Committee, all in the hope that he will be able to garner support of the powerful Kurmi community in Uttar Pradesh. However, Varma’s induction did little to improve the Congress party’s electoral prospects in the 2012 assembly elections. Varma has now rejoined the Samajwadi Party which has accommodated him in the Rajya Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi’s disdain for Congress members has been a source of simmering discontentment in the party for some time now. The manner in which he promoted lateral entrants like Madhusudan Mistry and Mohan Prakash, giving them charge of important states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, did not go down well with the other party functionaries who believe there is no place for loyalty. Similarly, the Congress vice-president’s dependence on “non-political” players like former bureaucrat K Raju and Mohan Gopal, at the cost of old-fashioned politicians, has been a source of much despair and anger in the party. Rahul Gandhi has done little to address this grievance. In fact, the latest appointments have only made matters worse.
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