Congress names Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ its Uttar Pradesh chief, betting on a Brahmin face for 2027
The three-term Rampur Khas MLA replaces Ajay Rai. Imran Masood becomes working president as the party builds a caste-balanced team before seat talks with the Samajwadi Party.
The Congress has appointed Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’, the party’s three-time MLA from Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh, as president of its Uttar Pradesh unit. She replaces Ajay Rai, who had led the state party since August 2023. Saharanpur MP Imran Masood has been named working president.
My priority will be to instil confidence among every Congress worker across the state that we are going to form the government in 2027. — Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’
Who she is
- Born in Prayagraj in 1974 and educated at Allahabad University.
- Daughter of Pramod Tiwari, the Congress’s Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, who held Rampur Khas for decades before her.
- Worked in the corporate sector and with non-profits before joining the Congress in 1998. She was a block pramukh from 2002 to 2014.
- Won Rampur Khas in a 2014 bypoll, kept it in 2017 and won again in 2022 by 14,741 votes.
The caste arithmetic
The new team is designed to send a message about who the Congress wants to represent. Mishra is a Brahmin, Masood is Muslim, and the party has also given senior roles to Devinder Nishad, an OBC leader, and Alok Prasad, a Dalit leader. Brahmin voters, once the Congress’s base in the state, have largely backed the BJP for the past decade.
What next
Uttar Pradesh votes for a new assembly in 2027. The Congress is negotiating seat sharing with the Samajwadi Party, its partner in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and a stronger organisation would give it more bargaining power in those talks.
Sources: ThePrint.
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