Young turks at the helm in UP Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress has overhauled its UP unit, replacing all eight zonal chiefs, including ministers RPN Singh and Jitin Prasada, with local youth leaders. For UP, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, Congress has 13 out of 16 office-bearers who are less than 40.

The rejig followed a spate of complaints Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi received from UPCC president Nirmal Khatri, who has been battling district presidents reluctant to step out of their comfort zones. It is believed that the new office-bearers ushered in by Gandhi would be able to look after the organisational matters better as they do not have dual responsibility of fighting Lok Sabha elections.

Zonal presidents who have been axed included senior leaders like PL Punia and Rajaram Pal, MPs, and state leaders Vivek Singh, Anugrah Narayan Singh and Bijendra Singh.